Bat"ter*y (&?;), n.; pl.
Batteries (&?;). [F. batterie, fr. battre.
See Batter, v. t.] 1. The act
of battering or beating.
2. (Law) The unlawful beating of another. It
includes every willful, angry and violent, or negligent touching of
another's person or clothes, or anything attached to his person or held by
him.
3. (Mil.) (a) Any place
where cannon or mortars are mounted, for attack or defense.
(b) Two or more pieces of artillery in the
field. (c) A company or division of artillery,
including the gunners, guns, horses, and all equipments. In the United
States, a battery of flying artillery consists usually of six
guns.
Barbette battery. See Barbette. --
Battery d'enfilade, or Enfilading
battery, one that sweeps the whole length of a line of troops
or part of a work. -- Battery en écharpe,
one that plays obliquely. -- Battery gun, a
gun capable of firing a number of shots simultaneously or successively
without stopping to load. -- Battery wagon, a
wagon employed to transport the tools and materials for repair of the
carriages, etc., of the battery. -- In battery,
projecting, as a gun, into an embrasure or over a parapet in readiness
for firing. -- Masked battery, a battery
artificially concealed until required to open upon the enemy. --
Out of battery, or From battery,
withdrawn, as a gun, to a position for loading.
4. (Elec.) (a) A number of
coated jars (Leyden jars) so connected that they may be charged and
discharged simultaneously. (b) An apparatus for
generating voltaic electricity.
&fist; In the trough battery, copper and zinc plates, connected
in pairs, divide the trough into cells, which are filled with an acid or
oxidizing liquid; the effect is exhibited when wires connected with the two
end-plates are brought together. In Daniell's battery, the metals
are zinc and copper, the former in dilute sulphuric acid, or a solution of
sulphate of zinc, the latter in a saturated solution of sulphate of copper.
A modification of this is the common gravity battery, so called from
the automatic action of the two fluids, which are separated by their
specific gravities. In Grove's battery, platinum is the metal used
with zinc; two fluids are used, one of them in a porous cell surrounded by
the other. In Bunsen's or the carbon battery, the carbon of
gas coke is substituted for the platinum of Grove's. In
Leclanché's battery, the elements are zinc in a solution of
ammonium chloride, and gas carbon surrounded with manganese dioxide in a
porous cell. A secondary battery is a battery which usually has the
two plates of the same kind, generally of lead, in dilute sulphuric acid,
and which, when traversed by an electric current, becomes charged, and is
then capable of giving a current of itself for a time, owing to chemical
changes produced by the charging current. A storage battery is a
kind of secondary battery used for accumulating and storing the energy of
electrical charges or currents, usually by means of chemical work done by
them; an accumulator.
5. A number of similar machines or devices in
position; an apparatus consisting of a set of similar parts; as, a
battery of boilers, of retorts, condensers, etc.
6. (Metallurgy) A series of stamps operated
by one motive power, for crushing ores containing the precious
metals. Knight.
7. The box in which the stamps for crushing ore
play up and down.
8. (Baseball) The pitcher and catcher
together.
