Trough battery spaces between the plates (the troughs) were filled with dilute sulfuric acid. So long as the box was not knocked about, there was no risk of electrolyte spillage. Trough battery The trough battery was a variant of Alessandro Volta's Voltaic Pile and was invented by William Cruickshank c. 1800. Volta's battery consisted of brine-soaked pieces of cloth sandwiched between zinc and copper discs, piled in a stack. This resulted in electrolyte leakage as the weight of the discs squeezed the electrolyte out of the cloth. Cruickshank solved this problem by laying the battery on its side in a rectangular box.
Sea Lion (battery-electric locomotive) Sea Lion (battery-electric locomotive) Sea Lion was a 2-foot gauge battery-electric locomotive built by Wingrove & Rogers in 1921 as works no. 313 for the Groudle Glen Railway on the Isle of Man. Together with its sister, "Polar Bear", it was intended that they would replace two Bagnall steam locos of the same names. However, the battery locos were not hugely successful, with "Sea Lion" being scrapped in 1922 following an incident where it fell down the side of the Groudle Glen. It has been proposed to build a replica "Sea Lion" at the Amberley Museum Railway, home of "Polar