"Did the Framers have batteries, or did they have to plug everything in?"

A wisecrack question of mine, just now, in the middle of a long conversation about the theory of original intent. Meade — who is not a lawyer — was engaging me — a law professor —  on the topic because he's off somewhere in the forum section of the local alternative newspaper website arguing with people about the 2d Amendment and so forth and we got to talking about how much of the modern world the Framers could have envisioned.

"Or did they get their electricity from lightning?" I quipped before looking up the history of batteries and seeing:

The usage of "battery" to describe electrical devices dates to Benjamin Franklin, who in 1748 described multiple Leyden jars (early electrical capacitors) by analogy to a battery of cannons.

Footnote 6 at the link quotes "Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin," Volume 2:

"Upon this we made what we called an electrical battery, consisting of eleven panes of large sash-glass, armed with thin leaden plates, pasted on each side, placed vertically, and supported at two inches distance on silk cords, with black hooks of leaden wire, one from each side, standing upright, distant from each other..."