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
Battery electric multiple unit can travel up to on energy stored in the batteries also recharging the batteries via the overhead-wires when on electrified sections of the line, at stations and via brake regeneration. The trial lasted one month from January to February. Network Rail refer to this prototype model and its possible future descendants as "Independently Powered Electric Multiple Units" (IPEMU). A month after the trial in March 2015, the introduction of battery-powered trains was proposed by Network Rail for consideration for the fifteen station Wrexham to Bidston, Birkenhead, Borderlands Line. The aim is to connect the line onto the electric 3rd rail