In September 1860, Quincke was one of the participants in the Karlsruhe Congress, the first international conference of chemistry worldwide.

Quincke also did important work in the experimental study of the reflection of light, especially from metallic surfaces, and carried on prolonged researches on the subject of the influence of electric forces upon the constants of different forms of matter, modifying the dissociation hypothesis of Clausius.

It is also known as the Herschel-Quincke Tube; John Herschel had proposed a similar apparatus, but did not build it.

from Cambridge and from Glasgow and was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of London.

In 1885 he published Geschichte des physikalischen Instituts der Universität Heidelberg.