Who Invented Vaping? Who Invented the Vape?
Vaping can look like a 21st-century trend, but the idea behind it is much older. Inventors were sketching out ways to inhale vapor instead of smoke decades before the first modern vape reached store shelves.
Here is a quick tour of the people and moments that shaped the vape, from a 1920s patent filing to the device that launched today’s industry, plus how the hardware and the rules have changed since.
Short version: Herbert A. Gilbert patented a “smokeless non-tobacco cigarette” in 1965, but it never went into production. The modern nicotine vape was invented by Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik in 2003 and went on sale in China in 2004.
The early ideas
Before electronics
People were experimenting with different ways to inhale long before electricity. Water pipes such as the hookah, which draw smoke through water, go back centuries in India and Persia. They aren’t vapes, but they show that the search for a different kind of draw is nothing new.
1927: Joseph Robinson’s electric vaporizer
One of the earliest known designs came from Joseph Robinson, who filed a patent for an electric vaporizer in 1927. It was meant for inhaling heated medicinal compounds rather than nicotine, and it never made it to market. Still, it put the basic idea on paper: use electricity to heat a substance so it can be inhaled as vapor.
1963: Herbert A. Gilbert’s smokeless cigarette
Herbert A. Gilbert is widely credited with inventing the first device that resembles a modern e-cigarette. He came up with it in 1963, and in 1965 he received a patent for his “smokeless non-tobacco cigarette.” Instead of burning tobacco, it replaced the smoke with heated, moist, flavored air.
Gilbert’s design contained no nicotine, and it never went into commercial production. The idea was simply ahead of its time.
The 1980s and 1990s: near misses
In the 1980s, Phil Ray and Norman Jacobson worked on an early nicotine inhaler and tried to bring it to a wider market, but it never caught on.
Tobacco companies experimented too. In the late 1980s and 1990s, some tested cigarettes that heated tobacco instead of burning it, but none of those early products became a lasting hit.
2003: Hon Lik and the modern vape
The modern vape comes from Hon Lik, a Chinese pharmacist. In 2003 he developed a battery-powered device that turned a nicotine liquid into an inhalable vapor, and it went on sale in China in 2004.
Hon has said his father, a heavy smoker, died of lung cancer, and that the loss was part of what drove his work. He was a smoker himself at the time.
His employer, the company that became known as Ruyan, a name that roughly means “like smoke,” took the device to Europe in 2006, and e-cigarettes first appeared in the United States in 2007.
From cig-a-likes to disposables
Early e-cigarettes were usually shaped like cigarettes, which is why vapers called them cig-a-likes. People soon wanted longer battery life and more flavor, and hobbyists started tinkering. The word “mod” comes from those early days, when vapers modified devices, sometimes built from flashlight parts, to get more battery power. A whole industry grew out of that tinkering, and the hardware changed quickly:
- Vape pens added bigger batteries and refillable clearomizer tanks.
- Box mods and sub-ohm tanks brought adjustable power, bigger clouds and rebuildable atomizers for hobbyists.
- Pod systems made vaping compact and simple again, and nicotine salts gave them a smoother feel at higher strengths.
- Disposable vapes took simplicity further, with nothing to refill.
E-liquid changed right alongside the hardware, moving from thin, high-PG blends to thick, high-VG juice. Our post on the evolution of e-liquid tells that side of the story. The vocabulary caught on too: Oxford Dictionaries named “vape” its word of the year in 2014.
Regulation catches up
As vaping grew, so did the rules. In 2016 the FDA extended its authority over tobacco products to cover e-cigarettes and vape juice, a change covered in our post on the FDA deeming regulations. Since December 2019, federal law has set 21 as the minimum age to buy any tobacco or vaping product.
Every vaping product also needs FDA marketing authorization through the premarket tobacco application (PMTA) process, and many products are still under review. Flavor rules vary by state and city and change often, so check the current rules where you live.
If all this history has you curious about today’s flavors, the Zamplebox Club sends adults 21+ a monthly box of vape juice picked for their flavor profile. You can swap any bottle before it ships, skip a month or cancel anytime.
Common questions
Who invented the first e-cigarette?
Herbert A. Gilbert patented a smokeless, non-tobacco cigarette in 1965, but it never went into production. Hon Lik invented the first commercially successful nicotine e-cigarette in 2003.
When did e-cigarettes arrive in the United States?
They first appeared in the US in 2007, three years after their launch in China.
Where does the word “vape” come from?
It is short for vapor or vaporize. The word spread along with the devices, and Oxford Dictionaries made it their word of the year in 2014.
Is vaping just a modern fad?
The devices are modern, but the idea is nearly a century old, going back to Joseph Robinson’s 1927 patent filing and Herbert A. Gilbert’s 1960s design.
WARNING: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. For adults 21+ only.