The Advent of Social Smoking
To***co smoking has been a part of human history for an extremely long time. In the Americas, there is evidence of to***co and incense smoking dating back as far as 5,000 BC. It was not until to***co was introduced to Europe in 1590 by French diplomat Jean Nicot (from whom we get the word ‘Nicotine’), that smoking began its transition into a social custom, spurred by t
he idea that it was a healthy habit according to the now-discredited theory of the four humors in Hippocratic medicine. The First Patent
Prompted by the growing stigma of smoking and the new evidence of the damage it causes to users, Herbert A. Gilbert – an American inventor, business school graduate and Korea veteran – figured out that combustion was a big contributing factor to the harm caused by smoking and got to work on finding a solution. Gilbert, himself a two pack a day smoker, imagined a “smokeless non-to***co cigarette” that replaced “burning to***co and paper with heated, moist, flavored air”, and was granted a patent for it in 1963. Some companies showed interest in producing the device and it was even featured in the December 1965 issue of Popular Mechanics, but it never went into production. China and the Modern Electronic Cigarette
Reportedly oblivious to the existence of Gilbert’s invention, Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik began researching his own solution to the smoking problem at the turn of the millennium. A heavy smoker himself and with a father diagnosed with lung cancer, he began the arduous process of quitting ci******es, finding that patches did nothing for him. By his own account, he “missed the effect of the sudden impact, the act of smoking, the sensation of smoking.” His first prototype, created in 2001, used ultrasound vaporization console to turn the ni****ne solution into a fine, cold mist. Miniaturization proved problematic, so he scratched that design and switched his focus to a heated resistance that evaporated the solution instead. This proved much more successful and was granted a patent for his invention in 2003. Birth of the Electronic Cigarette Industry
Shortly after Lik’s patent, Golden Dragon Group, the company he worked for, got to work in producing the first commercial units. The brand new product arrived at Chinese stores in 2004 featuring only a handful of flavours. In 2005, Golden Dragon Group began exporting to the US and Europe and changed its name to Ruyan (如烟) Group, which means “smoke-like” in Chinese. Then, in 2007, Ruyan was granted its first international patent. During this period, many other Chinese manufacturers began producing their own version of the devices and, in some cases, creating direct copies of Ruyan’s. Many of these vendors pioneered new atomizer, tank and cartomizer technologies, as well as flavours. These improvements greatly helped electronic ci******es pe*****te into western markets. http://www.dealsorduds.com/guides/history-of-e-ci******es/
