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Hon Lik, inventor of the modern electronic cigarette.
Electronic cigarettes, like those sold at AmericaneLiquidStore, have become extremely popular over the past few years, but it may surprise you to learn that the history of e-cigs goes back as far as 1963, when Herbert A. Gilbert patented a device which he a called “a smokeless non-tobacco” cigarette. Gilbert’s cigarette was described as “replacing burning tobacco and paper with heated, moist, flavored air.” Sound familiar? It should. That is exactly how the modern electronic cigarette operates.
Here is an excerpt from Gilbert’s original pitch to the United States Patent Office:
The present invention relates to a smokeless non-tobacco cigarette and has for an object to provide a safe and harmless means for and method of smoking by replacing burning tobacco and paper with heated, moist, flavored air; or by inhaling warm medication into the lungs in case of a respiratory ailment under direction of a physician.
Gilbert’s original device heated a nicotine solution and produced steam. In 1965, his patent was accepted, and his invention was even chronicled in the December 1965 issue of Popular Mechanics. But despite receiving several offers from manufacturers, Gilbert’s smokeless cigarette never materialized. In 1967, the device mysteriously disappeared from public record.
The idea of a smokeless cigarette wouldn’t enter the public consciousness again until the year 2000. That’s when Hon Lik, a Chinese pharmacist, developed a mechanism for vaporizing a pressurized jet of liquid using a propylene glycol solution. Lik also proposed the idea of using plastic cartridges to house the liquid and serve as a mouthpiece. His ideas laid the foundation of the modern electronic cigarette.
The first commercial electronic cigarette was introduced in China in May 2004, and was promoted as a smoking replacement. The company that employed Hon Lik, Golden Dragon Holdings, changed its name to Ruyan and started mass producing the invention in 2005. The company’s first international patent was accepted in 2007.
Since the time of their initial mass production, e-cigs have made a huge splash all across the world. An article published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that nearly one third (31 percent) of people who tried e-cigarettes reported that they quit smoking traditional cigarettes within 6 months. This is an impressive trend, since nicotine gum and patches have less than a 20 percent success rate.
As e-cigs continue to break new sales records every day, it’s clear that they aren’t going away any time soon. If you would like to check out the phenomenon for yourself, check out our high quality electronic cigarette kits at AmericaneLiquidStore, all sold at discount prices and guaranteed to satisfy.
