the.com/oxygen mask
Put yours on first — dead heroes help no one, especially the kid next to them.
means A mask that drops from the ceiling of an aircraft cabin to supply oxygen when cabin pressure fails, strapped on by passengers in exactly the order the safety briefing tells them to ignore.
from A straightforward compound — 'oxygen,' coined in French in the late 1700s from Greek roots meaning 'acid-former' (oxys, sharp/acid, plus -gen, producer), because its discoverers mistakenly believed the gas was essential to all acids, plus 'mask,' from French masque, itself traced back to Arabic maskharah, 'buffoon' or 'object of ridicule,' via Italian. The aviation safety-briefing phrasing ('secure your own mask before helping others') became common with the rise of commercial jet travel, as cabin pressurization made rapid decompression a real, drilled-for emergency.
- bag inflation
- may not fully inflate even while oxygen flows
- cabin altitude trigger
- deploys around 14,000 feet, not actual oxygen levels
- supply duration
- typically lasts just 12 to 20 minutes
- real purpose
- buys time for pilots to descend, not survive forever