ELEUSIS 



Eleusis. Ancient city of 

 Attica Said to have been founded 

 by Triptolemus (q.v.), it stands on 

 the Bay of Levsina, 12 ra. N.W. 

 of Athens, with which it is still 

 connected by the old causeway 

 called the Sacred road. It was 

 the chief seat of the worship of 

 Demeter, in whose temple the 

 Eleusinia were performed. During 

 the Persian Wars this great temple 

 was destroyed, but soon rebuilt, 

 additions being made by Pericles, 

 and later by Demetrius Phalereus. 

 Still further enlarged by the 

 Romans, the city continued intact 

 until it was destroyed by the Goths 

 under Alaric in A.D. 396. Eleusis 

 was the birthplace of the great 

 tragic poet Aeschylus, and after 

 the Peloponnesian War its citadel 

 was seized by the remnants of the 

 Thirty Tyrants (q.v.). Though the 

 site is strewn with ruins, little of 

 the temples but two porches re- 

 main, with a sacred well, a council 

 hall, and lesser temple. Eleusis, 

 later Eleusin, is now represented 

 by the village Levsina, lying 15m. 

 by rly. N.W. of Athens, chiefly 

 inhabited by Albanians. 



Eleuthera. Island of the Baha- 

 mas. It is 50 m. N.E. of New Pro- 

 vidence, and is separated from Great 

 Abaco by the Providence Channel. 

 Long and very narrow, it is fertile 

 and produces cascarilla, oranges, 

 pineapples, onions, and tomatoes. 

 The capital is Governor's Harbour, 

 with a good, fortified harbour. Area, 

 235 sq. m. Pop. 6,533. 



Elevation. In architecture and 

 engineering, the vertical view of a 

 building, machine, or other object 

 drawn to scale, but ignoring per- 



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ELF 



Elevator. Grain elevator on the Canadian Pacific Railway at Fort William, 

 Lake Superior, Ontano 



Elevator. Interior of a grain elevator ; 

 belt conveyer stacking sacks of grain 



spective. In astronomy it is the 

 angular height above the horizon 

 of a star or other celestial object ; 

 and in gunnery the angle between 

 the axis of the gun and the horizon- 

 tal. See Gunnery. 



Elevator (Lat. elevare, to lift 

 up). In aeronautics, the flap, or 

 hinged controlling surface, which 

 governs the speed of the aeroplane 

 to which it is fitted by raising or 

 depressing the nose of the machine. 

 It is usually mounted at the rear 

 of the machine, and is operated by 

 the fore and aft movement of the 

 control lever. The elevator is also 

 employed in steep banks or sharp 

 turns to bring the machine round. 

 When the elevator is moved down- 

 wards by pushing the control lever 

 forward it presents its surface to 

 the air stream at an angle which 

 sets up increased resistance. A 

 lifting effect is thus produced at 

 the tail of the machine where the 

 elevator is fitted ; the machine 

 rises at the tail and tilts down- 

 wards at the nose. To make the 

 aeroplane rise, the elevator is tilted 

 upwards. The air resistance is now 

 felt at the upper surface of the 

 elevator. It is consequently pressed 

 downwards, and with it the tail of 

 the machine, while the nose rises. 

 See Aeroplane. 



Elevator. American name for a 

 grain silo or store. It contains a 

 number of deep vertical bins, circu- 

 lar, hexagonal, or square in plan, 

 and constructed of steel plates 

 or reinforced concrete ; and is 

 equipped with elevating, cleaning, 

 distributing, and discharging appar- 

 atus. On arrival the grain is 

 emptied by means of a bucket or 

 pneumatic elevator into a receiving 

 chamber, whence it passes down- 

 wards, through an automatic 

 weigher and a cleaning machine, to 



a bucket elevator, which carries it 

 to the distributing floor at the top 

 of the building. Here it is received 

 on a system of belt conveyers and 

 is rapidly delivered into one of the 

 bins. These have conical bottoms 

 and are self-emptying. Trucks are 

 run under them and loaded directly 

 or the grain is transferred to ships 

 by belt conveyers, or through 

 spouts. The largest silos have a 

 capacity of several millions of 

 bushels ; will take in 40,000- 

 50,000 bushels an hour, and dis- 

 charge 100,000 bushels and up- 

 wards in the same time. A lift 

 for goods or passengers is some- 

 times called an elevator. 



Elf. Small being common to the 

 folklore of most countries of 

 northern Europe. Grimm says that 

 an elf comes as much short of 

 human size as a giant towers above 

 it. The white elves are well formed 

 and symmetrical, the black ugly 

 and misshapen. The latter mostly 

 work underground at their forges, 

 and, like their white brethren on 

 the earth's surface, take pleasure in 

 teasing mankind. If left undis- 

 turbed they maintain peace with 

 men and delight in doing them 

 service ; but if interfered with re- 

 taliate with mischief. 



Elves are generally gifted with 

 wisdom and sometimes with divina- 

 tion. A common characteristic of 

 the elf was his power of becoming 

 invisible, frequently by means of a 

 cloak or cap ; thus, Siegfried in the 

 Nibelungs Song has an invisible cap 

 which he obtains from Alberich, the 

 elf -king. In most stories elves are 

 peculiar to the earth and under- 

 ground, and are scarcely distin- 

 guishable from the forge-working 

 dwarfs and gnomes of the moun- 

 tains; while in others they are 

 associated with light and flowers, 



