F E AT U R E
The Evo lu t ion of Vape
Part One
E - c i g a re ttes a nd v aping have come a v er y lo ng wa y in a rela t iv ely sho r t t im e. I n fac t
th e p ac e o f ch a nge is s o rapid that e v en dev ices which a re just a y ea r o r so o l d c an
l o o k ho pe le ssly outdated.
Here we take a look at some of the major landmarks in the history of the electronic cigarette to see how far things have changed.
Just looking back at the way things have changed shows how far the technology has evolved and leaves us wondering just how things
will look in another five or ten years time.
1963
The first patent for an electronic cigarette was filed in the USA
on April 17, 1963 by inventor Herbert A Gilbert from
Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.
The patent was for a ‘smokeless non-tobacco cigarette’ which
was designed to “provide a safe and harmless means for and
method of smoking by replacing burning tobacco and paper
with heated, moist, flavoured air.”
According to the patent application it had many of the elements
found in today’s e-cigarettes.
The patent described how the invention would work saying: “Air
may be drawn through a…cartridge which has been moistened
with a chemically harmless flavouring preparation, combining
moisture and taste following which the moist and flavoured air
passes through a (heated) section of the device…so that warm,
moist and flavoured air is drawn into the mouth.”
Sadly Gilbert was far ahead of the technological capabilities
of the time, his invention never went into production and the
patent eventually expired.
1 9 6 3 - 2003
Er…nothing much really happened at
all in terms of e-cigarette development.
Smokers smoked regular cigarettes and
non-smokers didn’t unless they were
around smokers and then they got the
‘benefit’ of their second-hand smoke in
their lungs and on their clothes.
Nicotine without smoke was still
really just a dream.
2002
Talking of dreams, step forward heavy smoker
and pharmacist Hon Lik, from Shenyang in
north-east China. His father died from lung
cancer and he also realised that his own
smoking habit was also damaging his health.
80 ISSUE 07 VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE
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