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[MarkE]

There are no patents that I'm aware of in existence other than the karpen original @madebymonkeys.claiming priority won't be a problem because the playing field is quite huge.the winners will be high power smallish size at low cost, high power smallish size at high cost but big demand,low power smallish size at low cost but big demand. The ipods I'm talking about are the shuffle type ipods with a tiny lcd display or no display at all in other words the power all goes into the earphones.those ones require power in the 20-50 milliwatt range so its kind of the same thing as powering a pocket radio. If I can get it to power such ipods or radios CONTINOUSLY would that be ok? I'l squish it into a reasonable size and reasonable cost.radios and ipods are pleasure based items that people(especially women) generaly don't want to crankup with a dynamo or shove in sunlight I would think.

Prior art includes all art previously practiced including anything that is described in a prior publication. 

[profitis]

There's a plethora of pocket digital sound systems without displays and extra's @sarkeizen.I have to go hunting in the  stores to see what I can find.pocket radios also come needing one or two watch batteries and those batteries die out pretty fast even by self-discharge.I have to adapt   a reasonable sized battery TO the device which is not easy but not impossible. A milliwatt range superkarpen will be about a 30-50ml size.the problem is that karpens give power in bursts if power is drawn all-at-once which will require electronics to even out smoothly. So the ideal is a burst going to a capacitor,then the capacitor works your ipod while the karpen recharges for the next round.the other option is to allow the current through a rapid oscillator and then have a capacitor circuit smooth it out for the ipod.

[profitis]

If that were strictly true then there would be no more patents allowed on a zinc-carbon @mark E.

[Madebymonkeys]

If I could get hold of a tinselkoala(electrogenius) by my side it would be easy to adapt the radio or ipod electronics TO the battery at maximum efficiency. Only a few milliwatts are really needed for a good sound system.this type of battery would best be directly sold as an electronic component,like a transformer or capacitor with varying output values on its label.that would give scope for radio or ipod,clock or watch,remotes,switches etc etc manufacturers to adapt to the battery.

But what's the ballpark costed BOM? That could be a deal breaker.
Oh, and you'll need more than a few mW. An iPod (even a shuffle) has a headphone amp capable of up to about a 100mW output (this is a pretty standard output pwr).
Don't adapt the iPod to the battery, make a proper battery!

[Madebymonkeys]

If that were strictly true then there would be no more patents allowed on a zinc-carbon @mark E.

There would be no more patents based on the available prior art, correct.
Prior art also includes patents granted and subsequently expired.
That said, if it's a novel (note the word 'novel') method for making zinc carbon batteries, say a manufacturing process, then that could be granted.
If your selling patent rights then you'll need a patent first, not an application...this can take many years and typically does!

The grant of a patent requires that the application be novel - something can't be novel if its been described before or is 'common knowledge' or obvious to 'someone in the art'. Hope this helps.