ELLIOTT 



2015 



ELLSWORTH 



and west of Northern Greenland. It was dis- 

 covered by William Baffin in 1616, but up to 

 1899 very little was known concerning it. In 

 that year Peary explored its surroundings and 

 found that Grinnell Land, lying to the north, 

 was a part of the same land. A year or so 

 later Otto Sverdrup discovered its hitherto 

 unknown west coast and several neighboring 

 islands. See POLAR EXPLORATION. 



ELLIOTT, el'iut, MAXINE (1871- ), an 

 American actress who since 1908 has also been 

 a theatrical manager and theater owner. She 

 was born at Rockland, Maine. At the age, of 

 isixtron she moved to New York City to fight 

 her way to success in her chosen profession. 

 Her first appearance was in 1890 with E. S. 

 Willard in The Middleman. Subsequently, she 

 became identified with Rose Coghlan's com- 

 pany, and later, as a member of the Augustin 

 Daly company, she went to London, where she 

 was well received. In 1896 she joined Nat 

 Goodwin's company, and to him she was mar- 

 ried two years later, becoming his second wife, 

 but within a few years secured a divorce. As 

 co-star with Goodwin she appeared in a series 

 of plays of diversified themes, produced both 

 in England and America, embracing several 

 Shakespearean roles. Her first venture as an in- 

 dependent star was in 1903, when she appeared 

 in Her Own Way, followed by Her Great 

 Match, and Myself Bettina. Since 1903 she 

 has been owner and manager of the Maxine 

 Elliott Theater in New York City. She is a 

 sister of Gertrude Elliott, wife of Sir J. Forbes- 

 Robertson. 



ELLIPSE, e lips', the geometrical figure 

 which most closely resembles in form the orbit 

 of a planet. In geometrical terms an ellipse 



AN ELLIPSE 



The letters named, and the method of drawing 

 an ellipse, are explained In the text. 



is a conic section and a curve of the second 

 order and second class. There are many me- 

 chanical appliances for drawing ellipses, called 



ellipsographs, or elliptic compasses, but the 

 most simple method is to fasten the two 

 ends of a piece of string at two points, called 

 the foci. The string must be longer than the 

 direct distance between the two points. With 

 a pencil, keeping the string taut, an ellipse may 

 be described. The diameter passing through 

 the two foci is called the major axis; the 

 diameter taken at right angles to this is the 

 minor axis. 



To find the area of an ellipse multiply 

 half the length of the major axis by half that 

 of the minor axis and multiply the result by 

 3.1416; this is a process that can be explained 

 only by higher mathematics. In the accom- 

 panying figure the two foci are represented by 

 / /, the major axis by m a. The minor axis is 

 represented by h e. To ascertain the area 

 assume that m a equals 64 feet and h e 48 

 feet. One-half of 64 feet=32; one-half of 48= 

 24. 32X24=768: Multiply 768 by 3.1416, and 

 the result is 2412.7488, the number of feet. 



ELLIS, el' is, ISLAND, in New York har- 

 bor, might be called the "gateway to the 

 New World." Through it must pass all immi- 

 grants who enter the United States through the 

 port of New York, usually from two-thirds to 

 three-fourths of all those who come to the coun- 

 try from overseas. In 1907 over a million new- 

 comers were examined at the island for their 

 fitness to become citizens of America, and the 

 average number in subsequent years, until the 

 War of the Nations in 1914, was above 700,000. 

 After the immigrant has been accepted as a 

 prospective American citizen he is. taken upon 

 a government vessel to the "Battery," the 

 southern end of Manhattan Island (and there- 

 fore of the city of New York) and is then free 

 to develop his ambitious plans in the New 

 World. 



The island is a mile southwest of Manhat- 

 tan; it has been the property of the national 

 government since 1808 and an immigrant sta- 

 tion since 1891. 



ELLS 'WORTH, OLIVER (1745-1807), an early 

 American statesman, distinguished for his 

 sound judgment and activity at the Federal 

 Convention, where he helped frame the Consti- 

 tution of the United States in 1787. Having 

 served in the Continental Congress for five 

 years, and as judge in his state superior court, 

 he was chosen to represent his state, Connecti- 

 cut; at the Constitutional Convention. After 

 the government was organized he was elected 

 one of the first United States Senators from 

 his state and was chairman of the committee 



