On the idea of improvising a battery I wrote:
simply search in the sand for different bags of dubloons--and hope they
came from batches of alloy sufficiently dissimilar to generate a worth-
while potential difference. If not, then jump the next pirate who comes
ashore and steal his sword: it's iron or steel.
^^^^^

Ahh, me Hearties! I misspelled 'cutlass' :-)
--
John Savage (my new3 address is not valid for email)