The Man That Invented E-Cigs...

[ThaLadyD]

I read somewhere on the internet that the man who invented e-cigs did so because his father was dying of lung cancer from smoking all his life. So, he wanted to make a safe alternative that worked for people.

Anyone else heard this or found anything similar?

I just thought that was amazing!

 

[tribalmasters]

I heard that too, I can't remember where other than there were penstyles with black atomisers attached to white batteries being tested in a factory used as the image to the story!

--edit-- ohh yeah and Ruyan hehe

 

[Kent C]

A high-tech approach to getting a nicotine fix - Los Angeles Times


New Invention of 1963: The Smokeless Non-Tobacco Cigarette | Electronic Cigarettes by Instead E-Cigarette

 

[Caesarea]

Puff goes the dragon - The Irish Times - Tue, May 05, 2009

Same writer.

But an alternative story circulates concerning an unknown German from whom Hon Lik acquired the idea.

C.

 

[Sad Society]

Thanks for the links Kent C. I want that automatic tree farmer, that was featured in Popular Mechanics. Ha ha

 

[blacksheepfoto]

I find it hysterical that, though it was patented in the US almost half a century before Hon Lik started to "develop" and "market" them, he is being called the "inventor" of them.

He is not an inventor. He did not invent them. He may have innovated, developed, and marketed. But these were clearly not his original idea.

He may have just as well been searching the USPTO and found the old patent, long since expired. He could have easily put the pieces together himself in his head and said "Eureka" all on his own. In any case, however he came about it...he certainly wasn't the first and should not get credit for such. Credit for bringing them to light? Sure.

Just because you come up with a better way to use a wheel, doesn't mean you invented the wheel.

Hon Lik=innovator...NOT INVENTOR OF THE E-CIG

 

[DonDaBoomVape]

I find it hysterical that, though it was patented in the US almost half a century before Hon Lik started to "develop" and "market" them, he is being called the "inventor" of them.

He is not an inventor. He did not invent them. He may have innovated, developed, and marketed. But these were clearly not his original idea.

He may have just as well been searching the USPTO and found the old patent, long since expired. He could have easily put the pieces together himself in his head and said "Eureka" all on his own. In any case, however he came about it...he certainly wasn't the first and should not get credit for such. Credit for bringing them to light? Sure.

Just because you come up with a better way to use a wheel, doesn't mean you invented the wheel.

Hon Lik=innovator...NOT INVENTOR OF THE E-CIG

I disagree. He brought it into reality. The technology behing the MacIntosh (and MS Windows) was developed at Xerox Park, but Jobs & Wozniak and Bill Gates brought it into reality. Certainly the guy whose name I can't remember deserves respect, but Hon Lik made it happen.

 

[Kent C]

I find it hysterical that, though it was patented in the US almost half a century before Hon Lik started to "develop" and "market" them, he is being called the "inventor" of them.

He is not an inventor. He did not invent them. He may have innovated, developed, and marketed. But these were clearly not his original idea.

He may have just as well been searching the USPTO and found the old patent, long since expired. He could have easily put the pieces together himself in his head and said "Eureka" all on his own. In any case, however he came about it...he certainly wasn't the first and should not get credit for such. Credit for bringing them to light? Sure.

Just because you come up with a better way to use a wheel, doesn't mean you invented the wheel.

Hon Lik=innovator...NOT INVENTOR OF THE E-CIG

Chances are just as good that he invented it. Just wasn't the first to do so. This happens a lot more than is acknolwedged. Phone, light bulb, radio are all likely to have been invented by different people at different times without knowledge of the others.

 

[Rusty]

I find it hysterical that, though it was patented in the US almost half a century before Hon Lik started to "develop" and "market" them, he is being called the "inventor" of them.

He is not an inventor. He did not invent them. He may have innovated, developed, and marketed. But these were clearly not his original idea.

He may have just as well been searching the USPTO and found the old patent, long since expired. He could have easily put the pieces together himself in his head and said "Eureka" all on his own. In any case, however he came about it...he certainly wasn't the first and should not get credit for such. Credit for bringing them to light? Sure.

Just because you come up with a better way to use a wheel, doesn't mean you invented the wheel.

Hon Lik=innovator...NOT INVENTOR OF THE E-CIG

Please name the inventor then

 

[ThaLadyD]

I find it hysterical that, though it was patented in the US almost half a century before Hon Lik started to "develop" and "market" them, he is being called the "inventor" of them.

He is not an inventor. He did not invent them. He may have innovated, developed, and marketed. But these were clearly not his original idea.

He may have just as well been searching the USPTO and found the old patent, long since expired. He could have easily put the pieces together himself in his head and said "Eureka" all on his own. In any case, however he came about it...he certainly wasn't the first and should not get credit for such. Credit for bringing them to light? Sure.

Just because you come up with a better way to use a wheel, doesn't mean you invented the wheel.

Hon Lik=innovator...NOT INVENTOR OF THE E-CIG

I agree!!!

 

[ThaLadyD]

Thanks to everyone for the links and info!!!

 

[Harlequin]

Please name the inventor then

The 1965 US patent was granted to Herbert A. Gilbert of Beaver Falls, PA.

However, while Hon Lik's invention operates on the same principle, the mechanism and technolog are different; it's entirely possible that Hon Lik was not aware of the Gilbert patent and came up with a similar idea independently.

 

[Caesarea]

I think LaceyUnderall is trying to find out if Gilbert ever marketed any.

C.

 

[Harlequin]

If so, Google doesn't seem to know about it, but I did find this document which gives a bit more detail on Gilbert and his invention - Comes in Different Flavors--Now a "Smokeless" Cigaret [Article Re: Inventing of Smokeless Cigarette That Eliminates Hazards of Smoking. (C)]

 

[Caesarea]

Interesting document, Harlequin! Imagine soup flavours!
Would be good to know what he did with his 1965 patent. Mention is made of pharma companies interested in it...
Thanks,

C.

 

[blacksheepfoto]

DonDaBoomVape + KentC: Missing the point. Look up the words "invention" and "innovation". Invention implies being the first, where as innovate implies presenting as if new, or making changes or doing something in a new way.

My simple point is...you are not the "inventor" unless you did something first by definition. History has often misrepresented this. Thomas Edison was long credited as being the inventor of many things, however it has proven otherwise.

By that account, he who hath the most money at the time = inventor. I have to wholeheartedly disagree with this line of thinking.

And I do so, because like KentC says, others may have previously "invented" something, or been the first to make something, without our knowledge.

Like Jobs, Gates, Wozniak....these are examples of innovators and capitalists above all. Not inventors. The reason we call developers, well, developers, as all of these men were before becoming captains of industry (in The Woz's case, captains of Segway Polo team and dancing on reality tv, ahahah).....is because that is exactly what they do. They further develop on established concepts and ideas.

The battery is a good example, as is the computer. These are not, at their most elementary form, inventions of our age and society according to what we've uncovered. See "Bahgdad battery" and "Antikythera machine" as well as the abascus.

But to further the point...it would be like calling one of the guys here in the mod forum an inventor because he took the components, upped the voltage, and put it in a new case. Whoever did the first box mod is by no means an inventor, is he? Did he invent the e-cigarette? No, he improved on it, developed it further....aka "innovated".

I believe we are part of a global consciousness where ideas are kind of floating in a giant sea....sometimes people get lucky and fish one out...but have no idea how to prepare it. Others, fish it, scale it, cook it and eat it. Yet others still find it, figure out how to farm it, and get rich off of it giving it to the masses.

In any case, I simply don't believe giving him the credit as the first person to conceive of this is proper. Give him credit for everything else, but this idea is NOT originally his.

Nor does that mean Herbert can make that claim either! He just happened to be the first to patent it and protect it and by all accounts, under the system we have, owned the concept. For all we know someone else may not have even went that far but thought of it back in 1920! Maybe the ancient Greeks using one of those 2,000 year old batteries did it too!

Rusty: New Invention of 1963: The Smokeless Non-Tobacco Cigarette | Electronic Cigarettes by Instead E-Cigarette

 

[ThaLadyD]

..Wonder if the tobacco companies in the '60s got involved pending the pharma interest? Maybe payed him off?

 

[Kent C]

On a quick read of Gilbert's patent I see no mention of "vapor" but more about 'heating air' which then carries medicine to the mouth or lungs. It could be just a 'heated inhaler' like a Vicks inhaler but with heat.

In the article, vapor is mentioned as a description but there is no indication that there are 'vapor clouds' - rather, the emphasis seems to be on 'smokeless'. Of course 'our vapor' is smokeless as well.

So the actual patent - by the wording of it by Gikbert - it is a heated air inhaler with no mention of either inhaling or exhaling vapor.

 

[blacksheepfoto]

The 1965 US patent was granted to Herbert A. Gilbert of Beaver Falls, PA.

However, while Hon Lik's invention operates on the same principle, the mechanism and technolog are different; it's entirely possible that Hon Lik was not aware of the Gilbert patent and came up with a similar idea independently.

That doesn't mean he had an original thought. I've came up with numerous ideas, in fact, that I could PROVE IN THEORY...long before they came to market. And I watched as these ideas suddenly appeared on the open market when I had conceived of them, with no outside influence, years before.

See my global conscious thought in my other reply. Perfect example. It would be arrogant of me to think I invented those ideas first. But regardless, someone else had the gumption to see them through and share them with the world despite what materials or methods (sic, technology) was used.

Here is an analogy:
I just carved a wheel out of a new material I call Floralcrapacretewood, that I devised. It consists of potpourri, animal feces, concrete, and wood fiber. This wheel gives the distinct smell of an open field full of flowers in the Spring when it is rolled and has the pliability of wood with the strength of concrete.

I took the wheel, not an invention of my own, and modified it to either a useful or otherwise pointless purpose. I designed it with my computer technology, CAD programs and modelled it in 3d. I tested and retested and made revisions.

Guess what ya'll...it is still a wheel!

 

[blacksheepfoto]

On a quick read of Gilbert's patent I see no mention of "vapor" but more about 'heating air' which then carries medicine to the mouth or lungs. It could be just a 'heated inhaler' like a Vicks inhaler but with heat.

In the article, vapor is mentioned as a description but there is no indication that there are 'vapor clouds' - rather, the emphasis seems to be on 'smokeless'. Of course 'our vapor' is smokeless as well.

So the actual patent - by the wording of it by Gikbert - it is a heated air inhaler with no mention of either inhaling or exhaling vapor.

From the summary..." by replacing burning tobacco and paper with heated, moist, flavored air; or by inhaling warm medication into the lungs"

Sounds like inhaling vapor to me.