Whats an E-Cigarette?
Like gunpowder, the e-cigarette is a Chinese invention. The first ones came from the Ruyan company in 2004. According to media reports, Ruyan says it sold 300,000 e-cigarettes in 2008, and it’s far from the only company making the devices. The e-cigarette comes in many shapes and sizes. Many look more or less like long cigarettes; others look like cigars or pipes. They all work the same basic way: • The user inhales through a mouthpiece. • Air flow triggers a sensor that switches on a small, battery-powered heater. • The heater vaporizes liquid nicotine in a small cartridge (it also activates a light at the “lit” end of the e-cigarette). Users can opt for a cartridge without nicotine. • The heater also vaporizes propylene glycol (PEG) in the cartridge. PEG is the stuff of which theatrical smoke is made. • The user gets a puff of hot gas that feels a lot like tobacco smoke. • When the user exhales, there’s a cloud of PEG vapor that looks like smoke. The vapor quickly dissipates. • E-cig
