For those of you who haven't read "The Cigarette Papers" here is an excerpt (a precursor to e-cigs) and a link to the other chapers...
The Cigarette Papers
[h=3]Project Ariel[/h]The basic pharmacology work embodied in the Hippo projects and in The Fate of Nicotine in the Body was based on the realization that cigarettes are, at root, nicotine delivery systems. They are dirty devices, though. BAT, with help from Battelle, extended the initial work on nicotine pharmacology by developing an alternative delivery system that could administer nicotine to the body free of the toxins from tobacco smoke. The design goal was a safe cigarette (discussed in chapter 4). The device was named Ariel.
Two patents were issued to Battelle on Ariel, but BAT's Sir Charles Ellis is listed in both as the lead inventor (15, 16). The patents were apparently assigned to Battelle to disguise their origin. A 1970 letter from BAT to Addison Yeaman at B&W notes that "the patents were put into Battelle's name rather than B.A.T.'s for security reasons" {1202.01}.
Ariel relied on burning tobacco to heat a centrally arranged tube containing nicotine and an aerosol generator, consisting of a material such as water, which would form an aerosol when heated and then cooled, so that the nicotine could dissolve into the droplets and then be inhaled as part of the aerosol. The consumer would inhale an aerosol enriched in nicotine but relatively deficient in the "tar" elements of cigarette smoke. The device clearly embodies Sir Charles Ellis's vision of the essence of a cigarettethat it is a nicotine delivery device. The fact that BAT funded the work in the first place indicates that this vision was also shared by others at the company at the time.
What did BAT see as Ariel's potential position in the market in the early 1960s? After all, the device was significantly different from a ciga-
The patents for Ariel explicitly emphasize the importance of nicotine for the smoking experience and indicate that its action is, at least in part, physiological. (Because nicotine is not a normal part of the body, the actions would have been more accurately described as pharmacological.) The first patent, filed February 4, 1964, begins,
The following additional details are from the second patent:
The Ariel patents preceded patents from R. J. Reynolds and Philip Morris for analogous alternative nicotine delivery devices by twenty years or more (17). The best known of these devices, Premier from R. J.
Brown and Williamson has continued to conduct research on Ariel-like devices. The Ariel formula of a central core that generates the inhaled aerosol and that is heated by a surrounding fuel is illustrated in two patents assigned to B&W in 1990 and one in 1994 (2123). While the first of these recent patents envisions tobacco as the fuel, the latter two employ carbon in the style of Premier.
The flurry of patent activity in this area in the 1990s may be related to the expiration of the BAT patents on Ariel in 1983 and 1984 (originally issued in 1966 and 1967), in addition to advances in technical feasibility or market potential for these products. RJR seems to have begun the development of Premier in the early 1980s. This class of device incorporates a heating element, a reservoir for nicotine, and a means for dissolving vaporized nicotine in an aerosol for inhalation by the consumer. A cigarette contains each of these functions, but novel devices such as Ariel and Premier compartmentalize them and so make the normal operation of a cigarette easier to understand.
Ariel grew out of the realization that nicotine delivery is the essence of a cigarette and the belief that a nicotine delivery device relatively free of the major toxins of cigarette smoke could be designed. Although the product was never brought to market, its design and conception demonstrate what BAT and B&W thought was the most important part of their tobacco products: nicotine.
The Cigarette Papers
[h=3]Project Ariel[/h]The basic pharmacology work embodied in the Hippo projects and in The Fate of Nicotine in the Body was based on the realization that cigarettes are, at root, nicotine delivery systems. They are dirty devices, though. BAT, with help from Battelle, extended the initial work on nicotine pharmacology by developing an alternative delivery system that could administer nicotine to the body free of the toxins from tobacco smoke. The design goal was a safe cigarette (discussed in chapter 4). The device was named Ariel.
Two patents were issued to Battelle on Ariel, but BAT's Sir Charles Ellis is listed in both as the lead inventor (15, 16). The patents were apparently assigned to Battelle to disguise their origin. A 1970 letter from BAT to Addison Yeaman at B&W notes that "the patents were put into Battelle's name rather than B.A.T.'s for security reasons" {1202.01}.
Ariel relied on burning tobacco to heat a centrally arranged tube containing nicotine and an aerosol generator, consisting of a material such as water, which would form an aerosol when heated and then cooled, so that the nicotine could dissolve into the droplets and then be inhaled as part of the aerosol. The consumer would inhale an aerosol enriched in nicotine but relatively deficient in the "tar" elements of cigarette smoke. The device clearly embodies Sir Charles Ellis's vision of the essence of a cigarettethat it is a nicotine delivery device. The fact that BAT funded the work in the first place indicates that this vision was also shared by others at the company at the time.
What did BAT see as Ariel's potential position in the market in the early 1960s? After all, the device was significantly different from a ciga-
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rette. It would have been impossible to move all customers over to Ariel right away, so the product needed a beginning niche in the market to become established. To whom, then, would it be targeted initially? While the documents do not directly answer this question, the underlying rationale for the Hippo II project suggests a possible initial positioning: since the cigarette industry was worried about competition from tranquilizing drugs, which would help people deal with stress without the toxicity associated with cigarettes {1211.02}, a way to meet this competition head-on was to develop a substantially less toxic form of a cigarette. Thus, one potential market for Ariel was the group that otherwise might have used tranquilizing drugs to reduce stress.The patents for Ariel explicitly emphasize the importance of nicotine for the smoking experience and indicate that its action is, at least in part, physiological. (Because nicotine is not a normal part of the body, the actions would have been more accurately described as pharmacological.) The first patent, filed February 4, 1964, begins,
This invention relates to an improved smoking device whereby an improved smoke stream of a controlled character is delivered to the smoker.
In commercially available conventional smoking devices such as cigarettes, cigars and pipes, tobacco and reconstituted tobacco, or tobacco substitutes, are ignited and the products of combustion, in the form of a smoke stream in filtered or unfiltered form, are delivered to the mouth of the smoker. The smoke stream thus formed of the products of combustion may contain components which do not enhance the quality and characteristics of the smoke.
It is a prime object of the present invention to overcome the difficulties and disadvantages heretofore encountered [presumably, all the toxins generated during the combustion process] and to provide an improved smoking device which delivers an improved smoke stream of a controlled character and which does not contain the products of combustion.
...
The smoking device incorporates a continuous smoke passageway from its outer end to its mouthpiece end and which communicates with the nicotine-releasing composition. The smoke passageway includes an aerosol-nucleating chamber between the nicotine-releasing composition and the mouthpiece. This chamber is arranged so as to cool at an appropriate rate the potentially aerosol-forming materials sufficiently to enable aerosol particles to form, and the nicotine vapor is caused to contact the aerosol particles and condense thereon, whereby the nicotine assumes the transferability of the aerosol particles on which they condense.
...
The nicotine-releasing material employed in this form of device preferably comprises cured, shredded or cut and blended cigarette tobacco or reconstituted tobacco or mixtures thereof. The nicotine content of the tobacco or
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reconstituted tobacco is preferably enriched by mixing therewith a tobacco concentrate rich in nicotine so that the available nicotine in the mixture constitutes between approximately 5 and 20% by weight of the tobacco material [emphasis added]. (15, column 1, lines 1063; column 4, lines 210)
Conventional cigarettes also transport nicotine in droplets, except that the droplets are largely composed of the tars produced during the burning of tobacco. In the Ariel cigarettes the droplets were derived from other "aerosol-forming materials," such as water, making them potentially much less dangerous. Smoke from the burning tobacco around the core of the Ariel cigarette would be vented to the outside.
The following additional details are from the second patent:
A total and satisfying 'smoke' can be obtained with a high nicotine to tar ratio or, as sometimes expressed, a low ratio of total particulate matter (T.P.M.) to nicotine. This latter ratio can readily be reduced to one-quarter or less of the values normally expected of smoke from cigarettes having no special provisions for reducing the ratio. If desired , the nicotine content may be made normal, but with little of the normal particulate and vapor phases.
...
Thus, when the smoking device is smoked the smoker will draw into his mouth a small amount of smoke adequate to satisfy the taste of the smoker along with the nicotine containing aerosol .
...
Although the invention thus seeks primarily to furnish a smoking device which will yield nicotine in an acceptable form, both psychologically and physiologically , but without the necessity for taking into the system so much of the products of combustion as is usual when smoking a conventional cigarette, it may also be used mainly or partially as a means for achieving greater freedom for influencing the taste of the smoke, for introducing flavors and so forth [emphasis added]. (16, column 2, lines 3038, 5255, and 66; column 3, line 3)
This patent demonstrates the pharmacological role nicotine plays in cigarettes. It shows that the essence of a conventional cigarette, stripped of its undesirable elements, is "a smoking device which will yield nicotine in an acceptable form, both psychologically and physiologically" (or, more accurately, "pharmacologically," since nicotine is not part of normal human physiology). The patent mentions the provision of tastes and flavors through this invention, but this benefit is clearly regarded as secondary and as a separate matter, distinct from nicotine delivery.
The Ariel patents preceded patents from R. J. Reynolds and Philip Morris for analogous alternative nicotine delivery devices by twenty years or more (17). The best known of these devices, Premier from R. J.
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Reynolds, featured an insulated charcoal fuel element at the lit end of a cigarette-like device. The burning charcoal heated alumina beads coated with nicotine and glycerin, which, in turn, produced a nicotine-laden aerosol (18). Premier was sold in test markets briefly but was withdrawn because of poor consumer acceptance and opposition from the public health community (19). In 1994 RJR announced that it was conducting consumer tests on another charcoal-heated nicotine delivery device, called Eclipse, which produces an aerosol by heating glycerin adsorbed onto reconstituted tobacco. The resulting aerosol picks up nicotine and other soluble constituents from tobacco in the proximal portion of the device. As with Ariel and Premier, this device reportedly delivers nicotine while markedly lowering the delivery of other toxic constituents (20).Brown and Williamson has continued to conduct research on Ariel-like devices. The Ariel formula of a central core that generates the inhaled aerosol and that is heated by a surrounding fuel is illustrated in two patents assigned to B&W in 1990 and one in 1994 (2123). While the first of these recent patents envisions tobacco as the fuel, the latter two employ carbon in the style of Premier.
The flurry of patent activity in this area in the 1990s may be related to the expiration of the BAT patents on Ariel in 1983 and 1984 (originally issued in 1966 and 1967), in addition to advances in technical feasibility or market potential for these products. RJR seems to have begun the development of Premier in the early 1980s. This class of device incorporates a heating element, a reservoir for nicotine, and a means for dissolving vaporized nicotine in an aerosol for inhalation by the consumer. A cigarette contains each of these functions, but novel devices such as Ariel and Premier compartmentalize them and so make the normal operation of a cigarette easier to understand.
Ariel grew out of the realization that nicotine delivery is the essence of a cigarette and the belief that a nicotine delivery device relatively free of the major toxins of cigarette smoke could be designed. Although the product was never brought to market, its design and conception demonstrate what BAT and B&W thought was the most important part of their tobacco products: nicotine.
