Smokers have long since evolved passed having to combust tobacco in order to fulfill their hobby.  The technology of vaporizing tobacco pulls the vapor out of the plant and satisfies a user’s desire to smoke without creating actual smoke.  Vaporizers first produced and marketed two decades ago, make it convenient and practical for smokers to indulge in their habit.

The First Style of Vaping

During the 1960s, homemade vaporizers could be produced simply by taking a small metal bowl and heating it from below, then attaching a cover with a tube so that the vapor could be inhaled.  Since major tobacco producers experienced record profits during the post-war boom in the United States, few felt like a vaporizer would offer a better experience than a cigarette and mass production never started.  Not until the rise of campaigns for education about health issues relating to tobacco use during the 1980s and 1990s did companies look to healthy smoking technologies.

Vaping as a Business

In the mid 1990s, a Canadian company produced the BC vape, a model that kept tobacco within a metal plate that could be heated by pushing hot air through a plastic dome.  The Vancouver Times published a review of the BC, predicting that it would change the dynamics of smoking by vaporizing rather than creating smoke.  The BC model sold fairly poorly because it had limited appeal, though it inspired the Dutch vaporizer model De Verdamper, considered today to be one of the best conduction models on the planet.  

Expansion of Vaping

Vaporizers grew more common and popular in Europe than they did in North America during the late 1990s.  The German inventor Markus Storz built a Volcano Inhaler that utilized a giant balloon that would be filled up with steam and then directly inhaled.  The Volcano balloon holds nearly ten liters of air or steam.  Since Volcano proved more expensive than rolling papers or water pipes it was less popular amongst some tobacco smokers, yet higher-end customers prized it as a luxury item.  Eventually, however, the Volcano gained a large customer share.  Its success would drive other vaporizer models.

Hold It in Your Hand

At the same time that smart phone companies began designing all-in-one phones and computers that could fit in a pocket, vaporizer models began growing smaller and smaller.  The Irish company Oglesby and Butler created the hand-held Iolite vaporizer that allowed the tobacco to heat up to nearly four hundred degrees, enough to produce vapor but not smoke.  After the Iolite hit the market in 2008, the Magic Box followed suit.  This tiny vape runs on a single battery and can hit optimum temperature in a matter of only a few seconds, making ideal for smokeless tobacco on the go.