The History of Vaping
“How long has vaping been around?” is an interesting question and one with a rather complex answer. If you mean vaping using modern e-cigs, then the answer is very different than if you mean the act of vaporizing a substance for inhalation.
The vaporization of substances goes back thousands of years as a spiritual and recreational practice. The ancient Egyptians would vaporize certain herbs on hot stones, a practice that differed entirely from burning the herbs. Vaporizing them brought the natural oils out and converted them to vapor without causing combustion and the dangerous chemicals it produces.
Eventually, this practice would give way to the hookah, which uses hot coals to heat specific materials. The heated vapor was then fed into a water chamber and through a tube into the user’s mouth. Using a hookah is not considered vaping in modern terms, but it is certainly a precursor to vaping as we know it today.
But let’s take a look at more recent decades and how we arrived at the modern-day vaping devices you know and love.
The first e-cigarettes
The first smokeless, tobacco-free cigarette device was patented in 1967 by Herbert A. Gilbert. This “cigarette” was thought to be a safer method of smoking because it replaced burning paper and tobacco with moist, heated, flavored air. However, this product never really took hold in the market for a variety of reasons.
It was 2003 before Hon Lik, a Chinese pharmacist, invented the first-generation modern e-cigarette. This device used an electronic element to vaporize e-liquid made up of nicotine diluted in a flavored propylene glycol solution. Lik designed this e-cigarette as a less harmful way to ingest nicotine after his father passed away from lung cancer.
Lik introduced e-cigs to the Chinese market through his employer, the Golden Dragon Holdings, in 2004. Later, this company would change its name, appropriately, to Ruyan, which means “almost like smoke.”
These early e-cigarettes were a huge success in Asia and quickly became available online. Vaping gained popularity in many countries, and in 2007, they made their appearance in the US. Many major tobacco companies acquired e-cigarette brands, but some of the most successful e-cig manufacturers with the highest-quality products are independent companies.
Modern vaping
Vaping devices themselves have also evolved dramatically, from simple cigalikes to large, complex vape mods. However, today’s vapers have a wide range of devices to choose from. For every person who prefers the “hobbyist” aspect of an advanced vape mod, there’s someone who opts for the portability and simplicity of disposable e-cigs or, lately, the newer vape pod systems.
Today, vaping shows no sign of slowing down. There are more devices and flavors of e-juice on the market than ever, with perhaps the latest advancement being the popularization of nic salts. This form of nicotine dissipates in the body more evenly than freebase nicotine and provides a smoother, yet still satisfying, throat hit.
Whether you are trying to replace smoking with vaping or simply enjoy vaping as a hobby, you have more options than ever, and the vape industry continues to expand and evolve to meet the needs of people like you who are looking for a better alternative to smoking.
