Table of Contents
*2024 Update - Now you can make the switch with the New SMOKO VAPE POD! A pre-filled POD style E-Cigarette containing our great-tasting UK-made liquids!
INTRODUCTION
The e-cigarette is a common sight these days, it's hard to walk down the street without seeing at least one person creating a cloud of vapour with a big vapouriser or someone puffing away discreetly on a cigarette like device. And with over 3.6M people in the UK alone (1) using them to finally get off the cigarettes, they won't be going away anytime soon.
WHAT IS AN E-CIGARETTE?
Despite e-cigarettes coming in all shapes and sizes they all follow the same basic premise, a flavoured liquid with nicotine in is heated up until it becomes vapour. You then treat the vapour like you would smoke by breathing it in.
HOW OLD IS THE IDEA OF AN ELECTRONIC CIGARETTE?
For an idea that seems so futuristic, (an electronic cigarette you can charge up and is 95% less harmful than cigarettes would have sounded like an idea from a science fiction novel 20 years ago) the concept of a healthier alternative to smoking has actually been floating around since the 1920's! (2)
While the earliest electronic cigarettes were far from the easy-to-use vape refills of today, they were marvels at the time they were first introduced. An American man called Joseph Robinson created the first-ever electronic cigarette, unveiled officially in the year 1930.
Joseph's invention was sadly never available for sale and was created for medicinal use only, and quickly faded into obscurity. By 1963 another American, Herbert A. Gilbert, had introduced a version more similar to today's models (3).
This newer version did not use tobacco but instead was patented as "a smokeless non-tobacco cigarette" and used flavoured air turned into steam.
Sadly it didn’t catch on, the world still loved their cigarettes and the dangers of smoking were not well understood.
Another damning facet of the design was that Gilbert's version was nicotine free, and without the nicotine hit most smokers wouldn't even consider it.
WHO INVENTED THE MODERN E-CIGARETTE?
What we know as the modern e-cigarette was created in 2003 by the Chinese inventor and pharmacist Hon Lik (4). Due to the death of his father from smoking, and being a 3 pack a day smoker himself, Hon Lik was determined to find an alternative. He wanted to create something that had the all important nicotine hit and felt like a cigarette, but wouldn't have the same death toll.
His first attempt though wasn't what we would think of as a e-cigarette. Instead of heating the e-liquid and producing vapour like we have now, Lik’s initial design used a piezoelectric ultrasound element (5), which is the same technology dehumidifiers use. This technically worked, but was too big to really use.
Hon Lik kept working on it though and by 2003 had created what we think of as the e-cigarette.
WHEN WERE E-CIGARETTES MADE AVAILABLE FOR RETAIL?
It wasn’t until 2007 though that the e-cigarette made their way to Europe and the US. But pretty soon after they were introduced their popularity exploded. And it’s not hard to see why. Here was a new product that smokers could satisfy their nicotine cravings with, while reducing the damage to themselves. Check out the SMOKO stop smoking timeline to see how your body recovers while you stay off cigarettes!
While the designs of the e-cigarette have changed, the concept that all three of these inventors tried to create hasn't. We now have e-cigarettes in a whole host of flavours and strengths, and millions of people have been able to finally get off the cigarettes thanks to them!
HOW SAFE ARE E-CIGARETTES?
*2022 Update - Fast forward to 2022 and the e-cigarette market is booming. There have definitely been lessons along the way, from people adding illicit substances to their vape juice resulting in EVALI (E-Cigarette and vaping associated lung injury) to the marketing of e-cigarettes toward the youth in the United States.
We've learned about flavourings that should not be included in e-liquids, like in the case of diacetyl which has been known to cause a condition called 'bronchiolitis obliterans' or more commonly 'popcorn lung'.
It is of great import that in the UK and the EU the regulations surrounding E-Cigarettes have done the intended job of protecting the consumer - sadly the same cannot be said in the United States, where a lack of regulation led to an overreaction in terms of restrictions - with only tobacco flavour E-Cigarettes given the go-ahead by the FDA (6).
HISTORY OF THE E-CIGARETTE: WHO INVENTED IT AND HOW IT STARTED - CONCLUSION
More and more studies are showing how effective E-Cigarettes are at helping people to quit smoking - potentially twice as effective as other forms of nicotine replacement, like a nicotine patch or nicotine gum. A very recent Cochrane review backs this up, firmly planting E-Cigarettes as one of the best tools we have to help people quit smoking!
If you want to quit smoking - a look at our stop smoking timeline can show you how your body recovers - check out our E-Cigarette starter kit range and make the switch to an E-Cigarette today!
* 2024 Update - Now you can try our cigalike E-Cigarette Starter Kit for *FREE when you buy a box of SMOKO E-Cigarette refills! *(One per customer)
REFERENCES
(1) BBC: 'Half as many Britons' vape as smoke
(2) Historical Timeline of Vaping & Electronic Cigarettes
(3) Smithsonian: Plans for the First E-cigarette Went Up in Smoke 50 years ago
(4) Britannica: Hon Lik, Chinese pharmacist
(5) How Piezoelectricity Works to Make Crystals Conduct Electric Current
(6) FDA Issues Marketing Denial Orders for Approximately 6,500 Flavored E-Cigarette Products
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Written by Mike Cameron
Mike Cameron is a former smoker of 15 years (2 packs a day) until he successfully quit using a cigalike. Mike is the Co-Founder and CEO of SMOKO E-Cigarettes and over the last 10 years, SMOKO has prevented 600M+ cigarettes from being smoked, helped their customers save £320M+ of their hard-earned money from going up in smoke and helped 10,000’s of adult smokers in 25+ countries to live smoke-free.
