Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Battery \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 ['e]charpe}, 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   {Out of battery}, or {From battery}, withdrawn, as a gun, to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.

   Note: 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 Leclanch['e]'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.