Timeline of the Historical Development of Electronic Cigarettes

As early as 1927, Robinson filed the first patent application for the "inhalation of thermal medicine vapor device", and was granted the patent in 1930.

In 1963, Herbert A. Gilbert created a device that did not contain nicotine, which was very similar to modern e-cigarette devices, and obtained a related patent in 1965.

Phil Ray and Norman Jacobson jointly developed an e-cigarette device that can be retailed and contains nicotine (there was no e-cigarette device on the market before this), and the e-cigarette term "vape" was born.

However, due to certain defects in the device itself, it was not widely promoted and succeeded in the end.

Until around 1990, with the entry of capital, the "nicotine inhaler" was widely promoted by major tobacco companies and individuals and developed and obtained various patents. Reynolds introduced the "heat not burn device" to the market. Since the FDA did not pass the approval of this type of device, it did not successfully commercialize e-cigarettes.

In 2003, Hon Lik (Han Li), a pharmacist from Golden Dragon Holdings, invented "Ruyan" in Beijing, China. Since then, electronic cigarettes have been successfully introduced to the market.

Since 2008, some countries have begun to notice that e-cigarettes carry the same hazards as traditional cigarettes, and therefore restrict or prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes.

In 2009, US President Barack Obama signed the relevant bill. After that, new tobacco products seeking to enter the market must pass the FDA's pre-market standards.

In 2010, Singapore banned the import and sale of e-cigarettes.

In 2011, the Netherlands banned the import and sale of e-cigarettes. In the same year, the Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom stated that e-cigarettes can be used as effective substitutes in a report.

Australia bans the import of nicotine-containing e-cigarette devices in 2020, except for doctors’ prescriptions.