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 products such as tools 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

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

Image 1

1 World Trade Center under construction in 1970

The construction of the first World Trade Center complex in New York City was conceived as an urban renewal project to help revitalize Lower Manhattan spearheaded by David Rockefeller. The project was developed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Built primarily between 1966 and 1975, it was dedicated on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed on September 11, 2001. The idea for the World Trade Center arose after World War II as a way to supplement existing avenues of international commerce in the United States.

The World Trade Center was originally planned to be built on the east side of Lower Manhattan, but the New Jersey and New York state governments, which oversee the Port Authority, could not agree on this location. After extensive negotiations, the New Jersey and New York state governments agreed to support the World Trade Center project, which was built at the site of Radio Row in the Lower West Side of Manhattan, New York City. To make the agreement acceptable to New Jersey, the Port Authority agreed to take over the bankrupt Hudson & Manhattan Railroad, which brought commuters from New Jersey to the Lower Manhattan site and, upon the Port Authority's takeover of the railroad, was renamed PATH. (Full article...)
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New York State Route 431 (NY 431) is a state highway in Essex County, New York, United States. The highway, also known as the Whiteface Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway, begins at an intersection with NY 86 in Wilmington and climbs Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondacks. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation maintains the highway, which is 7.96 miles (12.81 km) long.

Marcellus Leonard, a merchant from nearby Saranac Lake, originally proposed the highway in the late 19th century. However, serious plans for the highway did not develop until the 1920s. Construction of the route began in 1929 and was completed in 1935; Leonard died six months before the opening. The 25-mile-per-hour (40 km/h) highway varies in elevation from over 2,000 feet (610 m) to over 4,500 feet (1,372 m) and increases in elevation by about 450 feet (137 m) per mile as it heads away from NY 86. The Whiteface Highway was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. (Full article...)
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The Queens–Midtown Tunnel (often referred to as the Midtown Tunnel) is a vehicular tunnel under the East River in New York City, connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens. The tunnel consists of a pair of tubes, each carrying two lanes. The west end of the tunnel is located on the East Side of Midtown Manhattan, while the east end of the tunnel is located in Long Island City in Queens. Interstate 495 (I-495) runs the entire length of the tunnel; I-495's western terminus is at the Manhattan portal of the tunnel.

The Queens–Midtown Tunnel was first planned in 1921, though the plans for the tunnel were modified over the following years. By the 1930s, the tunnel was being proposed as the Triborough Tunnel, which would connect Queens and Brooklyn with the east and west sides of Manhattan. The New York City Tunnel Authority finally started construction on the tunnel in 1936, although by then, the plans had been downsized to a connector between Queens and the east side of Manhattan. The tunnel, designed by Ole Singstad, was opened to traffic on November 15, 1940. (Full article...)
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Hulme Arch Bridge

The Hulme Arch Bridge in Hulme, Manchester, England, supports Stretford Road as it passes over Princess Road, and is located at grid reference SJ838968. The construction of the bridge formed part of the regeneration of the Hulme district of Manchester, both by re-establishing the former route of Stretford Road, which had been cut into two halves by the construction of Princess Road in 1969, and by providing a local landmark. The location was previously occupied by a footbridge.

The bridge consists of a deck supported by cables from a single arch that spans the bridge diagonally. The design was selected in June 1995, with construction running between May 1996 and April 1997. It was opened on 10 May 1997 by Alex Ferguson. (Full article...)
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A 300-page iPhone bill from AT&T Mobility mailed in a box was the subject of a viral video made by YouTube personality Justine Ezarik, best known as iJustine, which became an Internet meme in August 2007. Ezarik's video focused on the unnecessary waste of paper, as the detailed bill itemized all data transfers made during the first billing period of the original iPhone, including every email and text message. Stories of unexpected billing issues began to circulate in blogs and the technical press after the iPhone's heavily advertised and anticipated release, but this video clip brought the voluminous bills to the attention of the mass media.

Ten days later, after the video had been viewed more than 3 million times on the Internet and had received international news coverage, AT&T sent iPhone users a text message outlining changes in its billing practices. The information technology magazine Computerworld included this incident in its list of "Technology's 10 Most Mortifying Moments". (Full article...)
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M-62 is an arc-shaped state trunkline highway in the southwestern part of the US state of Michigan. The highway runs from the Indiana state line north and west to M-140 in Eau Claire. In between, it serves the western Cass County communities of Dowagiac and Cassopolis. The highway was formed in the 1920s, originally as a north–south route. It was later extended, taking the current arc-shaped routing. A short truncation in the 1950s produced the current routing, which has remained unchanged since. In total, M-62 runs about 28+1⁄3 miles (45.6 km) in the two counties. (Full article...)
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SF Ammonia, at Mæl, where the railway cars were ferried across Lake Tinn

The Rjukan Line (Norwegian: Rjukanbanen), at first called the Vestfjorddal Line, was a 16-kilometre (10 mi) Norwegian railway line running through Vestfjorddalen between Mæl and Rjukan in Telemark county. The railway's main purpose was to transport chemicals from Norsk Hydro's plant at Rjukan to the port at Skien, in addition to passenger transport. At Mæl the wagons were shipped 30 kilometres (19 mi) on the Tinnsjø railway ferry to Tinnoset where they connected to the Tinnoset Line. The Rjukan Line and the ferries were operated by Norsk Transport, a subsidiary of Norsk Hydro.

Construction of the line started in 1907, and it opened two years later. It became the second Norwegian railway to be electrified in 1911. It experienced heavy growth, and had fifteen electric locomotives in use. During World War II it was the scene of the Norwegian heavy water sabotage. After the 1960s production declined, and the railway was closed in 1991. It was kept as a heritage railway. (Full article...)

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Image 1
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.
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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.
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Continuous casting
Photo: Alchemist-hp
A disc of copper made by continuous casting, the process whereby molten metal is solidified into a "semifinished" state for subsequent rolling in the finishing mills. Continuous casting replaced the creation of ingots using stationary moulds. The process allows lower-cost production of metal sections with better quality, due to the inherently lower costs of continuous, standardised production of a product, as well as providing increased control over the process through automation. After casting, this disc was then etched to achieve its final state.
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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.
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Sukhoi Su-30
Photo: Sergey Krivchikov
The Sukhoi Su-30 is a twin-engine, two-seat supermanoeuverable fighter aircraft developed by Russia's Sukhoi Aviation Corporation. It is a multirole fighter for all-weather, air-to-air and air-to-surface deep interdiction missions. Its primary users are Russia, India, China, Venezuela, and Malaysia.
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MS Majesty of the Seas
Photo credit: UpstateNYer
MS Majesty of the Seas is a Sovereign class cruise ship owned and operated by Royal Caribbean International, a cruise line based in Miami, Florida. Her sister ship MS Sovereign of the Seas was the largest cruise ship in the world at the time of its completion in 1988.
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Image 7
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.
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Image 8
Hybrid-propellant rocket
Photograph credit: Matt Steiner and Kees08
A hybrid-propellant rocket is a rocket with an engine that uses propellants in two different phases, one solid and the other gaseous or liquid. The concept can be traced back to at least the 1930s.

This picture shows a transparent 3D-printed hybrid-rocket fuel grain with dual helical fuel ports, a post-combustion chamber, and a de Laval nozzle, photographed prior to the hot-fire test. The motor used nitrous oxide as the oxidizer and Pyrodex pellets for the igniter.
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Image 9
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.
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Image 10
Sukhoi Superjet 100
Photograph: Katsuhiko Tokunaga/SuperJet International
The Sukhoi Superjet 100 is a modern fly-by-wire twin-engine regional jet with 8 to 108 passenger seats. Development began in 2000; the aircraft had its maiden flight on 19 May 2008 and entered commercial service on 21 April 2011. This aircraft is seen flying off the coast of Italy near Sanremo.
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Mechanical advantage
Image credit: Prolineserver/Tomia
This diagram of four pulley systems illustrates how increasing the number of pulleys increases the mechanical advantage, making the load easier to lift. MA is the factor by which a mechanism multiplies the force put into it. In this diagram, 100 newtons is required to lift the weight off the ground. Each additional pulley increases the MA such that the four-pulley system only needs 25 newtons to accomplish the same task, but the rope must be pulled four times as far.
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Movable type
Photo credit: Willi Heidelbach
A composing stick and movable type, the system of printing and typography using pieces of metal type, made by casting from matrices struck by letterpunches. The text on the stick reads, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog and feels as if he were in the seventh heaven of typography together with Hermann Zapf, the most famous artist of the" [sic].
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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.
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Semi-submersible
Photo: Agência Brasil
The semi-submersible oil platform P-51, operated by Brazilian energy company Petrobras, being positioned by tugboats. Semisubs sit on pontoons located under the ocean surface, with the operating deck atop columns, above the sea level. In this manner, they are relatively protected from wave action.
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Four-stroke cycle
Photo credit: Eric Pierce
The four-stroke cycle of an internal combustion engine is the cycle most commonly used for automotive and industrial purposes today, including cars, trucks, and generators.

The cycle was invented by Nikolaus Otto in 1876, and is also called the Otto cycle. The cycle is characterized by four strokes, or straight movements in a single direction, of the piston.
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Enriched uranium
Photo: United States Department of Energy
A billet of enriched uranium, which is uranium where the percent composition of uranium-235 (²³⁵U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Enriched uranium is a critical component for both civil nuclear power generation and military nuclear weapons.
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Laptop computer
Credit: Mike McGregor
The OLPC XO-1 is an inexpensive subnotebook laptop computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries.
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Eiffel Tower
Photo: Benh Lieu Song
The Eiffel Tower as seen from the Champ de Mars. At 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, the tower, an iron lattice tower, is the tallest building in Paris, the most-visited paid monument in the world, as well as one of the most recognizable structures in the world. Named after its designer, Gustave Eiffel, it was built as an entrance arch for the 1889 Exposition Universelle and has since become the most prominent symbol of both Paris and France.
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Image 19
Thomas Edison
Photo: Bachrach Studios; Restoration: Michel Vuijlsteke
Thomas Edison (1847–1931) was an American inventor, scientist and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park" (now Edison, New Jersey) by a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large teamwork to the process of invention, and therefore is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory. Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history, holding 1,093 U.S. patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
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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.
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Main topics

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

Image 1Edison electric light bulbs 1879–80 (from History of technology)
Image 2Dome of Florence Cathedral (from History of technology)
Image 3Pont du Gard in France, a Roman aqueduct (from History of technology)
Image 43D printer (from Emerging technologies)
Image 5Thomas Edison with his second phonograph, photographed by Levin Corbin Handy in Washington, April 1878 (from History of technology)
Image 6Newcomen steam engine for pumping mines (from History of technology)
Image 7Alessandro Volta with the first electrical battery. Volta is recognized as an influential inventor. (from Invention)
Image 8Clock from Salisbury Cathedral, ca. 1386 (from History of technology)
Image 9Solid-state air batteries
Li-Air composition (from Emerging technologies)
Image 10Design for a flying machine (c.1488) by da Vinci (from History of technology)
Image 11Self-replicating 3D printer (from Emerging technologies)
Image 12Johannes Gutenberg's printing press was voted the most important invention of the second millennium. (from Invention)
Image 13An axehead made of iron, dating from the Swedish Iron Age (from History of technology)
Image 14A 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 15Ford assembly line, 1913. The magneto assembly line was the first. (from History of technology)
Image 16Top 30 AI patent applicants in 2016 (from Emerging technologies)
Image 17Agriculture preceded writing in the history of technology. (from History of technology)
Image 18The preserved Rocket (from History of technology)
Image 19A late Bronze Age sword or dagger blade (from History of technology)
Image 20'BUILD YOUR OWN TELEVISION RECEIVER.' Science and Invention magazine cover, November 1928 (from Invention)
Image 21The compartmented water wheel, here its overshot version (from History of technology)
Image 22A water-powered mine hoist used for raising ore, ca. 1556 (from History of technology)
Image 23A variety of stone tools (from History of technology)
Image 24NASA Fuel cell stack
Direct-methanol cell (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 27Men of Progress by Christian Schussele, representing 19 contemporary American inventors, 1862 (from History of technology)
Image 28The 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)

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

... that Zirconic was a U.S. government effort to create reconnaissance satellites equipped with stealth technology?
... that, after an attempt to sell the Tokamak de Varennes to Iran failed, it became a display at the Canada Science and Technology Museum?
... that Byrnihat was ranked by an air technology company as the world's most polluted city in 2024?
... that Carmel Naughton, having been told that girls were "stupid and couldn't do maths", sponsored a STEM scholarship fund?
... that Flathead Lake Biological Station can detect invasive aquatic species in real-time using eDNA technology?
... 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?
... that the Illinois Institute of Technology created Chicago's smallest park by deeding a 54-square-foot (5 m²) granite slab to the city?
... that Justin Yu, the current Classic Tetris World Champion, is also a cellist in MIT's video game orchestra?