BAT 



4? 



BAT 



7 niche* wid* and 24 inches thick, which, when planed up 

 and shot, are cut into two boards each 1J inch thick. 

 Such battens are used for the best floors; but in attics, and 

 rooms of less importance, for economy, the batten is cut into 

 thiee boards. When used for walls, the 7 and 2} inch bat- 

 ten* are cut into six piece* lengthways, being then some- 

 thing less than 2$ inches wulo and 1 J inch thick, allow- 

 ing made for the sawing. Battens are usually placed 

 at the distance of seven inches asunder, but sometimes 

 eleven or twelve, which is, however, considered slight work ; 

 if double laths are used, it will then be sufficiently strong 

 to carry the plaster. The battens are nailed to the bond- 

 timbers of the wall ; or, if there are no bond-timbers, to 

 wooden plug* placed at equal distances. Walls of brick 

 and stone, when not sufficiently dry to be finished in the 

 usual way, require battens for the lath and plaster : and it 

 is of the utmost importance to employ fattens in exposed 

 situations, especially on the sea coast, where the driving 

 rains will often penetrate the walls. 



Battens from the British possessions in North America, 

 when 6 and not exceeding 16 feet long, nor above 7 inches 

 wide and not above 2J inches thick, pay a duty of I/, per 

 120. Battens of the same dimensions from foreign coun- 

 tries pay 101. per 120. The duty increases with the length, 

 and also with the thickness, of the battens. The net re- 

 venue from battens in 1833 was 116.215/. The difference 

 between battens and deals is this : battens are never, and 

 deals are always, above seven inches wide. Battens are 

 always at least six feet long, and batten-ends always under 

 that length. The duty on battens and batten-ends is dif- 

 ferent: battens, 1 1. British North American, ID/, foreign: 

 batten-ends, 7*. 6rf. American, 3/. foreign. (Government 

 Statistical Tables, 1834.) The lie&t battens are from Chris- 

 tiunia : the worst, from America. 



BATTERING-RAM. [See ARTILLERY.] 



BATTERSEA, a parish in the county of Surrey, situated 

 four miles south-west of St. Paul's Cathedral, and forming 

 one of the suburbs of the metropolis. In Domesday Book 

 it is called Patricesy, and as the same survey mentions 

 that it belonged to the abbey of St. Peter, Westminster, 

 this probably indicates the true etymology of the name. 

 The parish comprehends an area of 3020 acres, pretty 

 equally divided between arable land and pasture. Much 

 of the former is occupied by market-gardeners, Battersea 

 being specially noted for the quantity of vegetable pro- 

 duce which it raises for the London market. The manor 

 of Battersea was given by the Conqueror to Westminster 

 Abbey in exchange tor Windsor ; after the dissolution ol 

 monasteries the manor passed through various hands, and 

 in the year 1627 it was granted by the king to Oliver St. 

 John, Viscount Grandison, from whom it descended to the 

 celebrated St. John, Viscount Bolinghroke, and in 1763 was 

 purchased of the St. .John family in trust for John Viscounl 

 Spencer, and is now the property of the present Earl 

 Spencer. A church is mentioned in Domesday Book, hut 

 the existing parish church is a modern structure, opened in 

 1777. It is situated on the banks of the Thames, and is o! 

 brick, with a tower and small conical spire. It has neithei 

 aisles nor chancel. A new church has recently been erected 

 liy the commissioners for building churches. The living ol 

 liitteiMM is a vicarage in the diocese ol Winchester, rated 

 in the kind's books at 13/. l.Vv.2$rf. The tithes which accrue 

 from the gardens render the living one of the most valuable 

 in the neighbourhood of London. Battersea lies too low on 

 the Thames to bo one of tho most agreeable suburbs ol 

 London for residence ; it nevertheless contains a large num- 

 ber of respectable houses and neat villas. Lord Boling broke 

 was born and died in the family mansion at Kattcrsca, ol 

 which Pope was a frequent inmate. The house was very 

 large, having forty rooms on a floor; but it has long since 

 been taken down and the site otherwise appropriated. The 

 village possesses a free school, which was endowed by Sir 

 Walter St John, in 1 700, for twenty boys; and both he and 

 his lady afterwards left further sums for apprenticing some 

 of the number. Battersea is connected with Chelsea 1>v a 

 wooden bridge across the Thames, erected in 1771. The 

 population of this extensive parish was 5540 in 1831, of 

 whom .1021 were females. (Lyson's Environs of London.) 



HATTERY. in I.T.V. [See ASSAULT.] 



BATTERY. This name is given to any number of 

 pieces of ordnance placed behind an Bpaulemtnt, or eleva- 

 tion of earth, cither to destroy the works or dismount (he 

 artillery of an enemy. 



It may bo said thai the antienu made use of a species of 



ordnance in the operation* of attack ami defence : and the 

 aattering-rams, the balit, and the calapullir. which, when 

 placed on the natural ground, ur in buildings of Umber, or 

 elevated on mounds of earth, servuihhe lx.-sicgers to demolish 

 the wall* of fortresses, or to drive the deicndci- in.m them, 

 may be considered as corresponding to the u\,n-. in 

 &c. t which constitute the armament of a modern bait' 



Vitruvius slates (De Architectural, lib. x ) ih..t ( Viros of 

 Chalcedon was the !irt who covered tin 1 ram with a shed, 

 in order to secure the men who worked it from the ai : 

 darts, and stones thrown by the enemy ; and he adds, that 

 the con- if the shed was subsequent!} unproved by 



the eiiL ; Philip and Alexander. The tettudines 



a.nd heli-polct were buildings of this nature, for the ; 

 tion of the men and military enniiirs, and in t 

 they correspond to the epaulemens which cover the onl).. 

 at present employed in the attack of a fortress. (See the de- 

 scription of the helepolis (Ain-oAic) of Demetrius. Plutarch, 

 Life of Demetrius, cap. 21.) 



Wliilc the same species of artillery continued to be used 

 in warfare, it is evident that no material change could take 

 place in tho nature of tho edifices constructed to cover it; 

 but from the epoch of the invention of gunpowder, the 

 wooden sheds or towers were superseded by masses of earth, 

 whose thickness was necessarily made greater than the 

 depth to which a cannon-shot can penetrate into them. In 

 modern times the designation of a battery varies w ith the 

 purposes to be accomplished, the nature of the ordnance 

 employed, and the manner in which the firing maybe made. 



A breaching battery is one which may he placed at be- 

 tween 50 and 1000 yards from any wall or rampart, in order 

 to demolish it : and the effect is produced by firing dn 

 or, as it is called, point blanc at the object: such a buttery 

 generally has its front parallel to the face of the wall to be 

 breached. 



An enfilading battery is one whose epaulement is per- 

 pendicular to the produced line of the enemy's rampart : 

 so that the shot from the guns may graze the interior side of 

 that rampart or its parapet, in the direction of its length. 

 When shot discharged from pieces of ordnance make suc- 

 cessive rebounds along the ground, the firing is said to he 

 a ricochet and the battery a ricoehetting battery : and this 

 mode of firing is employed when it is intended to dismount 

 artillery by enfilading a rampart. The effect is produced by 

 giving to the axis of the gun an elevation of between six and 

 nine degrees above a line passing from its chtimiier through 

 the crest of the enemy's parapet in front : and, according to 

 the latest experiments, the distance at which a battery 

 should be placed from the nearest extremity of the rampart 

 to be enfiladed by ricochet firiinr i> between 400 and 600 

 yards : at a greater distance than the latter much of the 

 ammunition would be expended without eli> 



A gun battery is one in which gnus onlv are employed. 

 for either of the purposes above mentioned, or to <1 

 any ground, by a fire of round, or solid shot. 



A howitzer battery, is one in which howitzers arc em- 

 ployed. This species of ordnance throws shells, or hollow 

 shot, generally at a small elevation of the axis to the horizon ; 

 and it serves to produce, by the bursting of the shells, a 

 breach in a rampart of earth : or, when lired it rirnrhel, to 

 destroy the pallisades or other obstacles which might impede 

 the troops in assaulting an enemy's work. Howitzers are 

 also used in conjunction with guns, to form breaches in 

 ramparts of brick or stone. 



A morlar battery is one in which shells are thrown from 

 mortars at a great elevation of the axis of the piece ; so that, 

 by the momentum acquired in falling, they may crush the 

 roofs, and by their explosion complete the destruction of 

 magazines or other buildings. This is called a vertical fire. 

 By employing large charges of powder, a very extensive 

 ranee has been produced by mortars ; for, at the siege of 

 Cadiz, during the late war. the French are said to have sent 

 shells to the distance of more than three miles from the 

 battery. 



When the battery is mounted on a natural or artificial 

 eminence, in order to allow the guns to fire from above 

 downward, or to make what is called a plunging fire 

 against or into the works of the enemy. . . s a 



rin-'i/ifr /inttfri/ : and when the guns arc elevated on a 

 platform, or on tall carriages, so as to be enabled to fire over 

 the superior surface of the parapet or rpauletnetit, the bat- 

 tery is said to be en barbette. This kind of battery is 



