Băt'ter-y, n.
n. [Fr. batterie, Pr. bataria, from Fr. battre, Pr. batre. See BATTER.]
Sense 1. The act of battering or beating.
Strong wars they make, and cruel battery bend. Spenser.
Sense 2. (Mil.) (a.) Any place where cannon or mortars are mounted, for battering a fortification or attacking an enemy. (b.) A body of cannon for use, taken collectively; as, to discharge the whole battery at once; a ship's battery.
Sense 3. (Elec.) A number of coated jars, so connected that they may be charged and discharged simultaneously.
Sense 4. (Galv.) An apparatus for generating galvanic electricity.
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 Davy's or Nicholson's battery, the couples of plates are attached to a bar and plunged simultaneously into cells containing the acid. Smee's battery is formed of plates of zinc and silver, with but one cell and one fluid. 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.
Sense 5. (Law.) The unlawful beating of another. It includes every angry and violent touching of another's person or clothes, or any thing attached to his person or held by him.
Battery d'enfilade, or enfilading battery, one which scours or sweeps the whole line or length battered.—Battery en echarpe, one that plays obliquely.—Battery de revers, one that plays upon the enemy's back.—Camarade battery, several guns playing at the same time upon one place. [Obs.]—Cross batteries, two batteries which play athwart each other, forming an angle upon the object battered.—In battery, projecting, as a gun, into an embrasure or over a parapet in readiness for firing.—Out of battery, or from battery, withdrawn, as a gun, to a position for loading.—Battery wagon, a wagon employed to transport the tools and materials for repair of the carriages, &c., of the battery.
