From today a new column on the VBAR blog is born. A series of articles by Edoardo Amadio, one of the greatest vape enthusiasts I've ever met, as well as a great connoisseur of everything related to the world of rebuildable atomizers ... An authentic vaping speleologist, but above all an excellent guy and a good friend.
Hi-End Vape Origins by Edoardo Amadio
Today I would like to talk to you about a question that is very interesting to me and around which I always read many inaccuracies, namely which were the first manufacturers to bring serious innovations in the RTA field and in Hi-End vaping more generally.
I underline the importance of the term ''serious'' because I do not believe that moving a post can be considered a revolution for an atomizer; the same goes for an increase or decrease in the diameter of a hole, whatever it is. There are many things to say, the topics are often overlapped and linked to each other, so to make the story more usable, we will divide this travel across the time into small paragraphs.
I often read "... SvoeMesto was the first with the Kayfun Lite Plus ..." or "the Germans from Flash-e-Vapor were the first to use divers and create a gravity-fed atomizer" "; are we sure? What if I told you that the first rebuildable Kayfun was produced in 2011, 3 years before the KLP? What if I told you that there were already RDTAs produced in 2012 by Steampipes? What if I told you that while SvoeMesto was working on his first mod prototype, Golden Greek had already designed, produced and marketed a tube mod?
Let's go!
About the Genesis Mesh world, the story is quite easy to retrace in a correct and linear way, with the first Genisis of the German "Raidy" (of which you can see the only known pictures below) published in October 2010 on a German forum , the Geesis lineage began. Its creator, however, did not have sales purposes, it was simply a product for its own sake born from the ingenuity and experimentation typical of the vapers of that era. The first mesh atomizer intended for sale was the "Line", produced by a Croatian user named Van (from which the historic modder '' Van & Del '' was born) and marketed at the beginning of 2011. Contemporary to Van, PeaceOffCake also emerged with the Katana, produced by an inventor from Zagreb. From there then the experiments began to multiply and the world of mesh Genesis atomizers has become a reality.
As for the world of cotton, however, since everything is much broader and more complicated, I decided to use the areas of origin of the various modders to create a sort of geographical mapping to make it easier to draft and read. As a first area of interest I would like to focus on the Eastern Europe and Russia, with the various contaminations which you will have the opportunity to read a little further below. I couldn't start talking to you about this area if I didn't start from SvoeMesto. The first activities of SvoeMesto date back to January 2011 when using bolts and a threaded and cut to size water pipe it built (small spoiler, following in the footsteps of GG) its first tube with a hybrid atomizer. Only at the beginning of March 2011 the Svoemesto v1 was released, in which finally we begin to glimpse what would have been the typical characteristics of the most modern RTAs.
As you can see from the picture, we have a hybrid atomizer that contains a cartom inside with a small hole for feeding. This tube is completely mechanical with a steel spring button, without a button safety lock but with a primitive system for adjusting the position of the battery thanks to an internal support that can be adjusted by the activation mechanism. It took exactly 6 months for his successor to be born in June 2011: the Svoemesto v2. Here we can finally begin to notice what will be the characteristics that from here on we will find practically everywhere in the RTA field. The Svoemesto v2 featured a hybrid tube with an adjustable and lockable spring button; mounted on it we find the so-called hybrid "bakomizer" (another spoiler, from which we will then take inspiration to create the ByKa series, BakomYzerKillerAtaman).
The "bakomizer" was designed for the wick and provided with removable posts with rubber plastic insulators (until now the insulators were in resin and everything was literally glued and therefore impossible to inspect and wash). It was from here that SvoeMesto began to work on the possibility of customizing an atomizer, in fact, different models of tanks, chimneys and bells were released, which, combined with the various formats of tube mods, could create more than 145 combinations. Shortly thereafter, the first experiments with electronic chipsets began, from which the first Semovar was born followed by the first Kayfun Mini for "eGo systems".
Is very important to know that SvoeMesto was the first to build these products and was also the first who decides to dedicate himself to publishing the progress of his works to keep updated those who from spectators would later become his customers. We cannot know when and how many users have built their devices without publishing anything and without carrying out a real sale to the public; an example, discovered by chance, is the Skipper, of which you can see just below the only photo I was able to find on Vk.
The Skipper was a rebuildable atomizer designed for wick and built specifically to be mounted on the eGo, also produced in mid-2011 and therefore contemporary to SvoeMesto. It will never be possible to know how many other '' Skippers '' were actually produced and it will not even be possible to know if anyone preceded the Skipper or even Svoemesto. This is precisely one of the fundamental reasons why very often there is a tendency to generalize and to indicate as the first innovators only those producers who have also focused on advertising and not only on production and experimentation.
Another example is represented by Titanium Mods, very few know that he dedicated himself to the production of titanium wicks atomizers as early as June 2011, making him the first modder to deal with titanium with one of his very first products: the Bulbuk (picture below). He was also the first to use divers for feeding: the Bulbuk was in fact sold with a mesh already rolled and inserted into the hole above the chamber, which, coming into contact with the cotton, allowed an optimal feeding. Feeding then resumed by Taifun and Flash-e-Vapor in the following years (we will talk about it in detail when we change the area of interest and we will talk about the western European area).
I cannot overlook the beginnings of VapeSystems, which isnpired by the juice feeding system from Titanium Mods create its first By-Ka in 2012, called BY-tank at the time. As you can see from the second picture, the roll of mesh that comes into contact with the wick to improve juice feeding, the exact same feeding system adopted months before in the Bulbuk. Therefore, we cannot attribute to VS any "primacy" in terms of inventiveness. Only with the comes of the successors of the By-tank (expressly developed in opposition to the Ataman of Titanium mods) will it be possible to notice the first innovative solutions such as removable top cap, liquid and airflow adjustable through a ring nut and drip tip adapted to the liquid regulation.
As for the eastern panorama of the world, among other important modders in terms of innovation we can find Chels (MiniEcig) that with its Mini and Micro series was one of the first to deal with small diameter atomizers and to present interesting solutions, such as locking the bell to facilitate disassembly or air/liquid adjustment without external tools with the MiniAtty.
Also very important was a man called "Kabat", modder of Holy Land Modz: from the end of 2011 he started modifying ego cartridges and creating atomizers with improvised materials, coming to create a sort of very simplified Spheroid.
At the same time as these latest arrivals (among the first) we have dozens and dozens of other modders who have given themselves to various different productions, those who have focused on titanium such as Art of Exhale or those who have focused on the production of very narrow draft mesh drippers, such as the Svarog series.
However, I feel I can say that, leaving aside cases like the Skipper one, those listed above are the producers who have actually filled in the first boxes of the family tree of the rebuildable atomizers. In the years immediately following there will be the dripper era, where practically everyone has dedicated themselves to the production of large diameter RDAs with various solutions and improvements, and then reappeared in the RTAs category only around 2013/2014, fresh from the experience and constructive devices. developed precisely on drippers.