Electric battery common fuels such as gasoline. In automobiles, this is somewhat offset by the higher efficiency of electric motors in converting chemical energy to mechanical work, compared to combustion engines. The usage of "battery" to describe a group of electrical devices dates to Benjamin Franklin, who in 1748 described multiple Leyden jars by analogy to a battery of cannon (Benjamin Franklin borrowed the term "battery" from the military, which refers to weapons functioning together). Italian physicist Alessandro Volta built and described the first electrochemical battery, the voltaic pile, in 1800. This was a stack of copper and zinc plates, separated by
Polar Bear (battery-electric locomotive) Polar Bear (battery-electric locomotive) Polar Bear was a gauge battery-electric locomotive built by Wingrove & Rogers in 1921 as works no. 314 for the Groudle Glen Railway on the Isle of Man. Together with its sister, "Sea Lion", they were intended to replace two Bagnall steam locos of the same names. The locos were not a success and, despite "Polar Bear" being rebuilt with bogies and a battery truck, the steam locos were reboilered and returned to traffic. "Polar Bear" was eventually scrapped acround 1926. A replica loco was built by Alan Keef in 2003 for the rebuilt Groudle Glen