[Little Bill]

How whre the battries grounded? In order to have an earth ground you have to go negative to Black Box and then positive to source, we are missing a pole.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

You are correct that you have to have 2 connections
to pull power out of a battery but I looked at the
drawing it only has the iron rod coming out of the
top.
Perhaps the copper was connected via a wire which
they have not found.
I don't believe there was enough power in this
chemical reaction battery to plate metal.
I think it was a shaman's trick to to impress
his following.