respirator
(ˈrɛspɪreɪtə(r))
[a. L. type *respīrātor, agent-n. f. respīrāre to respire. Cf. F. respirateur.]
1. Chem. An apparatus used for testing the composition of exhaled air. ? Obs.
| 1792 A. Young Trav. France 153 A respirator, with vital air in a jar on one side, and lime-water in another. |
2. A device of gauze or wire covering the mouth, or mouth and nose, and serving to warm the inhaled air or to prevent the inhalation of dust, smoke, or other noxious substances; also, a gas mask, or any mask for providing protection against noxious substances in the air.
The earliest form of respirator was invented by Julius Jeffreys in the autumn of 1835.
| 1836 Jeffreys Patent Specif. No. 6988. 5 The above is a description of the instrument which is adapted to the mouth alone, and which may be named the oral respirator. 1838 Mrs. Carlyle in New Lett. & Mem. (1903) I. 72 A thing made of black silk with a quarter of a mile of brass wire in it... They call it a respirator. 1872 Chem. News 17 May 239/1 The charcoal respirators invented by me in 1854 are now coming into general use, especially in manufactories and laboratories. Ibid., The respirator is suspended for ten or fifteen minutes over some strong solution of ammonia in a large beaker; in this way the charcoal absorbs a very large amount of ammoniacal gas... The wearer can remain for a considerable time in an atmosphere containing chlorine without suffering any inconvenience. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 1923/1 Respirators are used by cutlers and other grinders to exclude the dust from the lungs. 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 232 Respirators worn over the mouth are not now so much in vogue as formerly. 1915 Mrs. Belloc Lowndes Diary 26 Apr. (1971) 61 The [German] soldiers..had their noses plugged with cotton wool and respirators over their mouths, but even so, 1000 perished by their own gas. 1915 Sphere 7 Aug. 146/1 Respirators for the use of the Russian soldiers, who have been again attacked by gas bombs. 1938 Ann. Reg. 1937 25 Not a little of the increase was due in reality to military reasons, the Home Office being assigned some {pstlg}4,000,000 for the provision of respirators and the development of emergency fire brigade services for protecting the civil population in the event of war. 1971 Brit. Med. Bull. XXVII. 75/2 The use of..air-fed respirators..could greatly reduce the future incidence of asbestos-related cancers in this work. 1978 Cadogan & Craig Women & Children First x. 219 Forbidden to play with his gas mask, he muses bitterly on the ‘jolly good times’ that should result from unrestricted access to respirators. |
3. Med. An apparatus for maintaining artificial respiration.
| 1929 Drinker & McKhan in Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 18 May 1659/2 (caption) The mechanical respirator, showing patient ready to be pushed into the tank. 1932, 1938 [see iron lung 1]. 1966 Dunlop & Alstead Textbk. Med. Treatm. (ed. 10) 941 The action of all positive pressure respirators (or ventilators, as they are more correctly described) is to produce inflation of the lungs at a rate of 14 to 20 cycles per minute, expiration being allowed to occur passively. 1967 Slonim & Chapin Respiratory Physiol. iv. 48/2 Drinker-type ‘iron lung’ respirators are devices built to enclose all the body below the neck. 1977 C. Storr Tales from Psychiatrist's Couch xi. 118 His respiratory muscles were working again and he was out of the respirator for large parts of the day. |
Hence ˈrespiratored ppl. a., provided with, or wearing, a respirator.
| 1887 Story of a Kiss I. xi. 171 A wan, yellow lady, closely veiled and respiratored. |