Vaping In The Year of The Dragon

Reasearch electronic cigarettes before switching from “analog” to “digital”, and you’ll come across the fabled Ruyan e-cig.

Ruyan is the first-ever e-cigarette, invented in China in 2003 by pharmacist Hon Lik and marketed in 2005.

Originally conceived as a vaporless device (it heated drawn air) by American inventor Herbert A. Gilbert (see his patent schematic at the top of the pic), it never went anywhere because the technology just wasn’t there.

Don’t look for the Ruyan at a site by that name however; you can now order their e-cigs, e-cigars and even e-pipes from ECigarettes.cn.

But seeing as today is Chinese Lunar New Year, you should wait two weeks before ordering; that’s how long they’ll celebrate this new Year of the Dragon.