battery
1. a. two or more primary cells connected together, usually in series, to provide a source of electric current
3. Criminal law unlawful beating or wounding of a person or mere touching in a hostile or offensive manner
4. Chiefly Brita. a large group of cages for intensive rearing of poultry
b. (as modifier): battery hens
5. Psychol a series of tests
6. Chess two men of the same colour placed so that one can unmask an attack by the other by moving
7. the percussion section in an orchestra
8. Baseball the pitcher and the catcher considered together
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
battery
[′bad·ə·rē] (chemical engineering)
A series of distillation columns or other processing equipment operated as a single unit.
(electricity)
A direct-current voltage source made up of one or more units that convert chemical, thermal, nuclear, or solar energy into electrical energy.
(ordnance)
A group of guns or other weapons, such as mortars, machine guns, artillery pieces, or of searchlights, set up under one tactical commander in a certain area.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
battery
1. A combination of two or more electric cells capable of storing and supplying direct current by electrochemical means.
2. Any group of two or more similar adjacent plumbing fixtures which discharge into a common horizontal waste or soil branch.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Battery
(military), the basic artillery firing subunit. Batteries can be separate (regimental battery, coast artillery battery) or can be part of artillery battalions (regiments). The concept “battery” originally signified a large tactical unit containing a specific number of guns (for example, the French Army’s 100–gun battery at the Battle of Wagram in 1809). In Russia an organic firing unit was introduced in 1833 instead of a company. In modern armies a battery contains from two to three firing platoons, a headquarters platoon (squad), and from two to six guns (infantry mortars) or from four to six mounts. In combat all components of the battery are generally utilized. Batteries of regimental, antitank, and low caliber antiaircraft artillery can also be employed in platoons or by the piece. Subunits which undertake topographic, sound-ranging, and optical reconnaisance are also called batteries. There are also headquarters batteries, maintenance batteries, training batteries, and so on.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.