As mentioned above I very much appreciate your input here as I am new to this.

Am a little bit confused by what you mean putting my meter in series? Where else in this set-up could my meter possible be? If it goes between the cells it doesn't seem to measure the total output, just the total output of cells up to the point where I have my meter.

The meter is also showing what appears to be 1mA not 1A.

I feel a bit embarrassed by this one but we all gotta start somewhere.

When you tested the voltage you are seeing 5v on an open circuit (no load) and that voltage will drop significantly once you add one (light/phone/etc)

Yes, I noticed this with the light. Output drops by around half when the light is running.

So 5v x 1A would be 5 watts, 5v x 1ma (or .001A) would be .005 watts.

Great! Got it.

You will probably need a much bigger setup and/or many more earth batteries wired in combinations of parallel and series to get maximum current + volts in order to get up to 1+A @ 5v for charging devices.

Figured that. Bought more copper yesterday.

if you have 2 - 3 volt lights wired in series you will need 6v+ to give each light 3v. If you wire them in parallel you will only need 3v but your current requirement will double since the resistance will be cut in half.

Understood. I didn't actually run that test yet, but now I understand better how I would go about doing it.

V=I•R Voltage = I (current in amps) x Resistance (ohms)

Feel like I still have a lot to learn here! But with your help I have moved forward massively just this morning.

Thanks again.