Portal:Technology

The Technology Portal

P:TECHP:TECH

Technology is the application of conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word technology can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible tools such as utensils or machines, and intangible ones such as software. Technology plays a critical role in science, engineering, and everyday life.

Technological advancements have led to significant changes in society. The earliest known technology is the stone tool, used during prehistory, followed by the control of fire—which in turn contributed to the growth of the human brain and the development of language during the Ice Age, according to the cooking hypothesis. The invention of the wheel in the Bronze Age allowed greater travel and the creation of more complex machines. More recent technological inventions, including the printing press, telephone, and the Internet, have lowered barriers to communication and ushered in the knowledge economy. (Full article...)

Outline of technology

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Recognized articles - load new batch

Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

Image 1

A NECR GP38 at White River Junction, Vermont

The New England Central Railroad (reporting mark NECR) is a regional railroad in the New England region of the United States. It began operations in 1995, as the successor of the Central Vermont Railway (CV). The company was originally a subsidiary of holding company RailTex before being purchased by RailAmerica in 2000. In 2012, the company was purchased by Genesee & Wyoming, its current owner.

The New England Central Railroad main line runs from New London, Connecticut, to Alburgh, Vermont, at the Canada–US border, a distance of 366 miles (589 km). As of 2024, it has a total track length 345 miles (555 km). Primary sources of traffic include lumber, metals, chemicals, and crushed stone. (Full article...)
Image 2
U.S. Highway 75 (US 75) is a United States Highway in northwestern Iowa. It begins at the Missouri River on a bridge with Interstate 129 (I-129) and US 20. Immediately upon landing in Iowa from Nebraska, I-129 ends at an interchange with I-29. US 20 and US 75 continue around Sioux City on a four-lane expressway until US 20 exits to the east. US 75 heads to the north-northeast, parallel to the Floyd River, until Le Mars. There, Iowa Highway 60 (Iowa 60) continues northeastward on the expressway while US 75 heads due north. Near Hull, it is briefly overlapped by US 18. It leaves the state and enters Minnesota north of Rock Rapids.

US 75 was one of the original U.S. Highways to be created in 1926, though its roots trace back nine years prior to the creation of the King of Trails, a 2,000-mile-long (3,200 km) auto trail that connected Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Galveston, Texas. In the Upper Midwest, there were two branches of the King of Trails that converged at Sioux City, which then continued south to Council Bluffs. In 1920, the Iowa State Highway Commission assigned route numbers to roads in order to improve wayfinding for travelers. The King of Trails was assigned Primary Road No. 12 (No. 12) from Council Bluffs to Sioux City and the western branch and No. 22 along the eastern branch. In 1926, the U.S. Highway 75 name was applied through Iowa to Primary Roads No. 12 and 22, the King of Trails route. (Full article...)
Image 3
M-61 is a state trunkline highway in the US state of Michigan that runs between Marion and Standish. The highway runs along the boundary area between Northern Michigan and Central Michigan in the Lower Peninsula. M-61 runs through rural forestland connecting several smaller communities together as it connects M-115, US Highway 127 (US 127), Interstate 75 (I-75) and US 23. Less than 10,000 vehicles a day use various segments of the roadway on average.

The trunkline was first designated along a portion of its current alignment by 1919. M-61 was extended in segments through 1940, with a truncation at the end of the 1950s. One change in routing in the 1970s resulted in the current routing of the highway. (Full article...)
Image 4

Windows 2.0 is a major release of Microsoft Windows, a family of graphical user shells and operating systems developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on December 9, 1987, as a successor to Windows 1.0.

The product includes two different variants: a base edition for 8086 real mode, and Windows/386, an enhanced edition for i386 protected mode. Windows 2.0 differs from its predecessor by allowing users to overlap and resize application windows, while the operating environment also introduced desktop icons, keyboard shortcuts, and support for 16-color VGA graphics. It also introduced Microsoft Word and Excel. (Full article...)
Image 5
Transport in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was an important part of the nation's economy. The economic centralisation of the late 1920s and 1930s led to the development of infrastructure at a massive scale and rapid pace. Before the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, there were a wide variety of modes of transport by land, water and air. However, because of government policies before, during and after the Era of Stagnation, investments in transport were low. By the late 1970s and early 1980s Soviet economists were calling for the construction of more roads to alleviate some of the strain from the railways and to improve the state budget. The civil aviation industry, represented by Aeroflot, was the largest in the world, but inefficiencies plagued it until the USSR's collapse. The road network remained underdeveloped, and dirt roads were common outside major cities. At the same time, the attendance of the few roads they had were ill-equipped to handle this growing problem. By the late-1980s, after the death of Leonid Brezhnev, his successors tried, without success, to solve these problems. At the same time, the automobile industry was growing at a faster rate than the construction of new roads. By the mid-1970s, only 0.8 percent of the Soviet population owned a car.

Despite improvements, several aspects of the transport sector were still riddled with problems due to outdated infrastructure, lack of investment, corruption and bad decision-making by the central authorities. The demand for transport infrastructure and services was rising, but the Soviet authorities proved to be unable to meet the growing demand of the people. The underdeveloped Soviet road network, in a chain reaction, led to a growing demand for public transport. The nation's merchant fleet was one of the largest in the world. (Full article...)
Image 6
Restored remnants of the Oregon Iron Company Furnace

The Oregon Iron Company was an iron smelting company located in what is now Lake Oswego, Oregon. The company was established in 1865, and in 1867, became the first company west of the Rocky Mountains in the United States to smelt iron. The company failed after a few years, but was reorganized as the Oswego Iron Company in 1878, and again as the Oregon Iron and Steel Company in 1883. With the addition of a larger furnace, the last incarnation of the company prospered, reaching peak production in 1890. By 1894, however, pressure from cheaper imported iron combined with the effects of the Panic of 1893 forced the company to close its smelter. The company continued to operate a pipe foundry until 1928, and until the early 1960s, existed as a land management company, selling its real estate holdings which expanded the city of Lake Oswego. (Full article...)
Image 7
One of the concrete bus shelters, located near Old Parliament House

Concrete bus shelters are considered an icon of Australia's capital city Canberra. Installation of the cylindrical bus shelters began in 1975 and continued into the early 1990s. At least 477 were purchased, of which 455 remained in use by ACTION buses as of 2016^[update].

The bus shelters are an example of brutalist architecture, and were designed for the National Capital Development Commission. They have proved to be hard wearing, but problems with their windows and a lack of lighting make them uncomfortable to use at times. Several variants of the design were developed, and some were installed in other cities. (Full article...)

More recognized articles

Selected picture

Image 1
Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech Ring
Painting: Laura Knight
Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech Ring is a 1943 painting by the British painter Laura Knight depicting a young woman, Ruby Loftus (1921–2004), working at an industrial lathe as part of the British war effort in World War II. The painting was commissioned by the War Artists' Advisory Committee, and is now part of the Imperial War Museum's art collection. The painting brought instant fame to Loftus, and has been likened to the American figure of "Rosie the Riveter".
More selected pictures
Image 2
Trojan Room coffee pot
Picture: Quentin Stafford-Fraser
The Trojan Room coffee pot was the inspiration for the world's first webcam. The coffee pot was located in the corridor just outside the so-called Trojan Room within the old Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge. The webcam was created in 1991 to help people working in other parts of the building avoid pointless trips to the coffee pot by providing, on the user's desktop computer, a live 128×128 pixel greyscale picture of the state of the coffee pot. The webcam was shut down on 22 August 2001, following the Computer Laboratory's move to the William Gates Building.
More selected pictures
Image 3
TRS connector
Image credit: Søren Peo Pedersen
Two TRS connectors (also known as jack plugs or phone plugs), a common audio connector. They are cylindrical in shape, with two or more contacts. Originally invented for use in telephone switchboards, jack plugs are still widely used, both in the original ¼-inch (6.3 mm) size and in miniaturized versions. The top plug in this image is for stereo connections, while the bottom is for mono.
More selected pictures
Image 4
Kitty Joyner
Photograph: NACA
Kitty Joyner (1916–1993) was an American electrical engineer with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and then the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She was hired in 1939 as the organization's first woman engineer, shortly after she had become the first woman to graduate from the University of Virginia's engineering program.
More selected pictures
Image 5
Wheel
Credit: fir0002
A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axial bearing. The wheel is one of the main components of the wheel and axle which is one of the six simple machines.
'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000023-QINU`"'
- More selected pictures
Image 6
BMW S1000RR
Photograph credit: Stefan Krause
The BMW S1000RR is a sport bike made by BMW Motorrad. It was introduced in 2008, initially for competition in the 2009 Superbike World Championship, and has been in commercial production since then. Powered by a 999 cc (61.0 cu in) four-cylinder engine, redlined at 14,200 rpm, it delivers 133.6 kW (179.2 hp; 181.6 PS) to the rear wheel, making it the most powerful motorcycle in the class. Rubén Xaus and Troy Corser rode the bike for its inaugural Superbike World Championship in 2009, gaining highest finishes of fifth and seventh respectively, but it achieved greater success in the 2010 FIM Superstock 1000 championship season, with rider Ayrton Badovini winning every single race but one on the S1000RR.
More selected pictures
Image 7
Geneva drive
Animation: Mike1024
The Geneva drive is a gear mechanism that translates a continuous rotation into an intermittent rotary motion. The rotating drive wheel has a pin that reaches into a slot of the driven wheel advancing it by one step. The drive wheel also has a raised circular blocking disc that locks the driven wheel in position between steps. Such a mechanism is used in film projectors, watches, and indexing tables, among others.
More selected pictures
Image 8
Filling station
Photograph: Uwe Aranas
A filling station in Sabah, Malaysia, operated by Royal Dutch Shell. Filling stations, also known under a wide variety of names, are facilities that sell fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. They include one or more fuel dispensers, which distribute fuels such as gasoline and diesel into the tanks within vehicles and calculate the financial cost of the fuel transferred. Filling stations may also include air compressors and electricity sockets, which may inflate tyres or offer charging stations. Many filling stations also incorporate a convenience store, where customers can purchase snacks and other goods.
More selected pictures
Image 9
Empire State Building
Image credit: Lewis Hine
A structural worker bolts beams on the framework during the construction of the Empire State Building in New York City. The 1,250-foot (380 m) building opened on May 1, 1931, at the time the tallest building in the world, overtaking the Chrysler Building (seen to the right), which had just been completed the year before. The addition of a pinnacle and antennas later increased its overall height to 1,472 feet (449 m).
More selected pictures
Image 10
Escalator
Credit: Stig Nygaard
An escalator is a moving staircase for carrying people between floors of a building. The device consists of a motor-driven chain of individual, linked steps that move up or down on tracks, allowing the step treads to remain horizontal.
'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000025-QINU`"'
- More selected pictures
Image 11
Laptop computer
Credit: Mike McGregor
The OLPC XO-1 is an inexpensive subnotebook laptop computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries.
'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000027-QINU`"'
- More selected pictures
Image 12
Walchensee Hydroelectric Power Station
Photograph credit: Diego Delso
The Walchensee Hydroelectric Power Station is a storage power station in Bavaria, Germany. The turbines, seen here, are fed by water from the Walchensee which is then released into the Kochelsee. The power station uses the hydraulic head of about 200 metres (660 ft) between the two natural lakes, and water from the Rißbach river is also used to augment the supply. The installed capacity is 124 MW with an annual production of 300 GWh; this is one of the largest of such power plants in Germany.
More selected pictures
Image 13
Red telephone box
Photograph: Christoph Braun
A 'K6' model red telephone box outside of St Paul's Cathedral in London. These kiosks for a public telephone were designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and painted "currant red" for easy visibility. Although such telephone boxes ceased production when the KX series was introduced in 1985, they remain a common sight in Britain and some of its colonies, and are considered a British cultural icon.
More selected pictures
Image 14
Blender (software)
Image credit: Michael Otto
A pastoral scene of a lone house, composed using Blender, an open source 3D computer graphics software. Blender can be used for a number of applications and is available for a wide variety of operating systems.
More selected pictures
Image 15
Rigger
Photo credit: Alfred T. Palmer
"Big Pete" Ramagos, rigger at work on Douglas Dam, Tennessee, June 1942. A rigger is a person or company which specializes in the lifting and/or moving of extremely large and/or heavy objects. Riggers use equipment expressly designed for moving and lifting objects where ordinary material handling equipment cannot go.
More selected pictures
Image 16
Overhead power line
Credit: Simon Koopmann
An overhead power line is a structure used in electric power transmission and distribution to transmit electrical energy along large distances. It consists of one or more conductors suspended by towers or utility poles.
'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-0000001F-QINU`"'
- More selected pictures
Image 17
George Washington Carver
Photo: Arthur Rothstein; Restoration: Lise Broer
A portrait of George Washington Carver, American scientist, botanist, educator and inventor, from 1942. Much of Carver's fame is based on his research into and promotion of alternative crops to cotton, such as peanuts and sweet potatoes. In addition to his work on agricultural extension education for purposes of advocacy of sustainable agriculture and appreciation of plants and nature, Carver's important accomplishments also included improvement of racial relations, mentoring children, poetry, painting, and religion. One of his most important roles was in undermining, through the fame of his achievements and many talents, the widespread stereotype of the time that the black race was intellectually inferior to the white race.
More selected pictures
Image 18
David Faiman
Photograph: David Shankbone
David Faiman is an Israeli engineer and physicist recognized for his expertise on solar power. He is the director of the Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center and Chairman of the Department of Solar Energy & Environmental Physics at Ben-Gurion University's Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research in Sde Boker.
More selected pictures
Image 19
Mazda RX-8
Photo credit: Fir0002
The Mazda RX-8 sports car is a front mid-engine, rear-wheel drive four-seat coupé manufactured by Mazda Motor Corporation. It is the successor to the RX-7 and, like its predecessors in the RX range, it is powered by a rotary engine. The RX-8 began North American sales in the 2004 model year.
More selected pictures
Image 20
Telephone
Credit: Berthold Werner
A telephone, or phone, is a telecommunications device that converts sound, typically the human voice, into electronic signals suitable for transmission via cables or other transmission media over long distances through satellite.
'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000021-QINU`"'
- More selected pictures

Main topics

General images - load new batch

The following are images from various technology-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Ford assembly line, 1913. The magneto assembly line was the first. (from History of technology)
Image 2Alessandro Volta with the first electrical battery. Volta is recognized as an influential inventor. (from Invention)
Image 3The compartmented water wheel, here its overshot version (from History of technology)
Image 4Dome of Florence Cathedral (from History of technology)
Image 5A water-powered mine hoist used for raising ore, ca. 1556 (from History of technology)
Image 6Agriculture preceded writing in the history of technology. (from History of technology)
Image 7NASA Fuel cell stack
Direct-methanol cell (from Emerging technologies)
Image 8A late Bronze Age sword or dagger blade (from History of technology)
Image 9'BUILD YOUR OWN TELEVISION RECEIVER.' Science and Invention magazine cover, November 1928 (from Invention)
Image 10A variety of stone tools (from History of technology)
Image 11The wheel, invented sometime before the 4th millennium BC, is one of the most ubiquitous and important technologies. This detail of the "Standard of Ur", c. 2500 BCE., displays a Sumerian chariot. (from History of technology)
Image 12Thomas Edison with his second phonograph, photographed by Levin Corbin Handy in Washington, April 1878 (from History of technology)
Image 13Clock from Salisbury Cathedral, ca. 1386 (from History of technology)
Image 14Top 30 AI patent applicants in 2016 (from Emerging technologies)
Image 15Johannes Gutenberg's printing press was voted the most important invention of the second millennium. (from Invention)
Image 16Solid-state air batteries
Li-Air composition (from Emerging technologies)
Image 17Newcomen steam engine for pumping mines (from History of technology)
Image 183D printer (from Emerging technologies)
Image 19The preserved Rocket (from History of technology)
Image 20Pont du Gard in France, a Roman aqueduct (from History of technology)
Image 21A rare 1884 photo showing the experimental recording of voice patterns by a photographic process at the Alexander Graham Bell Laboratory in Washington, D.C. Many of their experimental designs panned out in failure. (from Invention)
Image 22Design for a flying machine (c.1488) by da Vinci (from History of technology)
Image 23Edison electric light bulbs 1879–80 (from History of technology)
Image 24Self-replicating 3D printer (from Emerging technologies)
Image 25Walls at Sacsayhuaman (from History of technology)
Image 26Eric M. C. Tigerstedt (1887–1925) was known as a pioneer of sound-on-film technology. Tigerstedt in 1915. (from Invention)
Image 27An axehead made of iron, dating from the Swedish Iron Age (from History of technology)

Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

... that astrophysicist Alan C. Cummings has led more than 1,700 weekly birdwatching walks at Caltech since 1986?
... that Carmel Naughton, having been told that girls were "stupid and couldn't do maths", sponsored a STEM scholarship fund?
... that the Japanese manga series Mink featured futuristic technology even though its creator was unfamiliar with computers?
... that Criccieth Castle combined the "latest advances in military technology" with the "haphazard Welsh castle building style"?
... that vehicles in Star Trucker still look like American semi-trucks from the 1970s, despite having technology such as warp drivers and maglocks?
... that Byrnihat was ranked by an air technology company as the world's most polluted city in 2024?
... that several science fiction critics praised "Rock Diver", the first short story by American writer Harry Harrison, for its compelling take on technology for passing through matter?
... that Kathanar – The Wild Sorcerer is being shot on a custom-built studio spanning 45,000 square feet (4,200 m²), utilizing the virtual production technology?