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Batter
(Bat"ter), n. A backward slope in the face of a wall or of a bank; receding slope.
Batter rule, an instrument consisting of a rule or frame, and a plumb line, by which the batter or slope
of a wall is regulated in building.
Batter
(Bat"ter), v. i. (Arch.) To slope gently backward.
Batter
(Bat"ter), n. One who wields a bat; a batsman.
Batterer
(Bat"ter*er) n. One who, or that which, batters.
Battering-ram
(Bat"ter*ing-ram`) n.
1. (Mil.) An engine used in ancient times to beat down the walls of besieged places.
It was a large beam, with a head of iron, which was sometimes made to resemble the head of a ram.
It was suspended by ropes to a beam supported by posts, and so balanced as to swing backward and
forward, and was impelled by men against the wall. Grose.
2. A blacksmith's hammer, suspended, and worked horizontally.
Battering train
(Bat"ter*ing train`) (Mil.) A train of artillery for siege operations.
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 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 — Out of battery, or From battery, withdrawn, as a gun, to a position for loading.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.
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,
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