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The Technology Portal

The 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

P: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

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

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Maryland Route 228 (MD 228) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known as Berry Road, the state highway runs 6.88 miles (11.07 km) from MD 210 in Accokeek east to U.S. Route 301 (US 301) and MD 5 Business in Waldorf. MD 228, which is a four-lane divided highway for its entire length, is a major commuter route between southwestern Prince George's County and northern Charles County. In conjunction with MD 210, the state highway serves as an alternative to US 301 and MD 5 as a route to Washington, D.C. from Southern Maryland. MD 228 also serves as part of the connection, again via MD 210, between Waldorf and Indian Head Naval Surface Warfare Center.

MD 228 did not originally connect Waldorf with Accokeek; instead, the state highway headed west from Waldorf and turned south near the Prince George's – Charles county line, following what is now MD 229 to Pomfret. The state highway was built from Pomfret to Berry in the late 1920s. MD 228 was completed between Berry and Waldorf in the mid-1930s. MD 228 was expanded to a divided highway in Charles County and extended into Prince George's County in the mid-1990s. In 2000, the Prince George's County section of the state highway was reconstructed as a divided highway west to the MD 210 intersection, which was rebuilt as the second continuous-flow intersection in the U.S. (Full article...)
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Mississippi Highway 366 (MS 366) is a highway in Prentiss County, Mississippi. It starts at MS 370 at the Lee–Prentiss county line in the west. The route intersects many county routes as it travels eastward to MS 371, its eastern terminus. The route was designated in 1957, and became fully paved by 1971. (Full article...)
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West 23rd Street from the High Line
(2014)

23rd Street is a broad thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan, one of the major two-way, east-west streets in the borough's grid. As with Manhattan's other "crosstown" streets, it is divided into its east and west sections at Fifth Avenue. The street runs from Avenue C and FDR Drive in the east to Eleventh Avenue in the west.

23rd Street was created under the Commissioners' Plan of 1811. The street hosts several famous hotels, including the Fifth Avenue Hotel and Hotel Chelsea, as well as many theaters. Several skyscrapers are located on 23rd Street, including the Flatiron Building, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, and One Madison. (Full article...)
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New York State Route 344 (NY 344) is a state highway located in Columbia County, New York, in the United States. The route is 1.90 miles (3.06 km) in length and serves primarily as an access road to the Bash Bish Falls state parks on both sides of the New York–Massachusetts border. The western terminus of NY 344 is at NY 22 in Copake Falls. Its eastern terminus is at the Massachusetts state line, where it continues into Bash Bish Falls State Park as Falls Road, a locally maintained highway. NY 344 was assigned c. 1932 and extended to its current length by 1953 after NY 22 was rerouted to bypass Copake Falls. (Full article...)
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The burned down snow tunnel

Hallingskeid Station (Norwegian: Hallingskeid stasjon) is a train station on the Bergen Line in the municipality of Ulvik in Vestland county, Norway. Located at an elevation of 1,110 meters (3,640 ft) above mean sea level, the station is situated inside a snow tunnel. It opened along with the central section of the line on 10 June 1908 and remained as a staffed station until 1982. It is located on the Hardangervidda plateau in an area without population or road access. The station therefore serves trekkers and mountaineers. Only some of the Vy Tog trains stop at the station.

The original station building was designed by Paul Due, who used the same architectural plan for four other mountain stations on the line. The snow tunnel has caught fire five times. The fires in 1948, 1953 and 2008 only caused minor damage to the tunnel itself. The 1960 fire burned-down the tunnel, the station building and most of the station area. The last fire, in 2011, had a Class 73 train caught in the tunnel; both it and the tunnel were damaged beyond repair. (Full article...)
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Highway 4 is a 103-kilometre (64 mi) highway in southern Alberta, Canada that connects Highway 3 in Lethbridge to Interstate 15 in Montana. The highway was designated in 1999 as the First Special Service Force Memorial Highway in honour of elite soldiers who travelled to Helena, Montana for training before World War II. The highway continues into the United States retaining that name.

It begins in Coutts at Alberta's busiest border crossing, winding north through gentle rolling hills and farmlands in the south of the province. It bypasses Milk River, Warner and Stirling before reaching Lethbridge where it becomes 43 Street and ends at Crowsnest Trail on the east side of the city. In 1995, it was designated as part of the CANAMEX Corridor that links Canada to Mexico and the United States, including the major cities of Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Diego which lie on Interstate 15. (Full article...)
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New York State Route 9N (NY 9N) is a north–south state highway in northeastern New York in the United States. It extends from an intersection with U.S. Route 9 (US 9), NY 29, and NY 50 in the city of Saratoga Springs to a junction with US 9 and NY 22 in the Clinton County hamlet of Keeseville. At 143.49 miles (230.92 km) in total length, NY 9N is the longest letter-suffixed route in the state. It is concurrent with its parent route for 1 mile (1.6 km) in the village of Lake George and for three blocks in the hamlet of Elizabethtown.

Much of NY 9N runs alongside either a river or a lake. It follows the Hudson River through northern Saratoga County and southern Warren County, the entirety of Lake George's western shoreline, the west edge of Lake Champlain between Ticonderoga and Westport, and the Ausable River from Keene to Keeseville. The other portions of NY 9N pass through predominantly rural and mountainous regions of the Adirondack Mountains. (Full article...)

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Paddle steamer
Daguerreotype credit: Unknown
A daguerreotype from the 1850s of the Ben Campbell, a paddle steamer—a ship or boat driven by a steam engine that uses one or more paddle wheels to develop thrust for propulsion. The paddle wheel was the first form of mechanical propulsion for a boat, but has now been almost entirely superseded by more modern forms of marine propulsion.
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Image 2
Parabolic antenna
Photo credit: Richard Bartz
A parabolic antenna, a high-gain reflector antenna used for radio, television and data communications, at Erdfunkstelle Raisting, the largest facility for satellite communication in the world, based in Raisting, Bavaria, Germany. Parabolic antennas work by reflecting electromagnetic radiation off the paraboloid dish to or from the feed horn (center), for reception or transmission respectively.
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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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Thorntonbank Wind Farm
Photo credit: Hans Hillewaert
Wind turbines belonging to the Thorntonbank Wind Farm located in the North Sea, 28 km (17 mi) off the coast of Belgium. Electricity generation started in early 2009, with an initial capacity of 30 MW, and that number is expected to rise to 300 MW by 2015. A 37 km (23 mi) 150 kV undersea cable connects the wind farm to the shore.
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Image 5
Jet engine
Diagram: Jeff Dahl
A diagram of a typical turbojet engine. Air is compressed as it enters the engine, and is mixed with fuel that burns in the combustion section. Released through the exhaust, the resulting hot gases provide forward thrust and turn the turbines that drive the fan blades of the compressor.
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Image 6
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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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.
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Image 8
Pin tumbler lock
Photo credit: Eric Pierce
The pin tumbler lock is a lock mechanism that utilizes a group of pins of varying lengths to prevent opening the lock without the correct key. Pin tumblers are most commonly employed in cylinder locks, but may also be found in tubular or radial locks.

When the correct key is inserted, the gaps between the key pins (red) and driver pins (blue) align with the edge of the plug (yellow).
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Image 9
Micrometer
Photograph: Lucasbosch
A micrometer is a device incorporating a calibrated screw, widely used for precise measurement of components in mechanical engineering and machining. Micrometers are usually, but not always, in the form of calipers (opposing ends joined by a frame). The spindle is a very accurately machined screw and the object to be measured is placed between the spindle and the anvil. The spindle is moved by turning the ratchet knob or thimble until the object to be measured is lightly touched by both the spindle and the anvil.
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Image 10
Bucket-wheel excavators
Photograph: Raimond Spekking
Bucket-wheel excavators (BWEs) are heavy equipment used in surface mining. The primary function of a BWE is to act as a continuous digging machine in large-scale open pit mining operations. These BWEs were photographed at the Garzweiler surface mine in Germany.
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Image 11
Flat-four engine
Photograph: ULPower Aero Engines
The ULPower UL260i, a flat-four engine produced by ULPower Aero Engines of Belgium. Flat-four engines are flat engines with four cylinders arranged horizontally in two banks of two cylinders on each side of a central crankcase; they can be used in cars, motorcycles, or aircraft. This type of engine tends to be well-balanced and have efficient cooling, but is expensive to manufacture and considerably wider than other engines.
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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.
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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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Stockwell Garage
Photograph: David Iliff
An interior view of Stockwell Garage, a large bus garage in Stockwell, London, designed by Adie, Button and Partners and opened in 1952. The 393-foot-long (120 m) roof structure, seen here, is supported by ten very shallow "two-hinged" arched ribs, between which are cantilevered barrel vaults topped by large skylights. The garage, which could originally hold 200 buses, has been a Grade II* Listed Building since 1988.
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Image 15
STS-119
Photo: NASA
This photo of the International Space Station (ISS) was taken during STS-119, a Space Shuttle mission that delivered and assembled the fourth starboard Integrated Truss Segment, and the final set of solar arrays and batteries to the station. Construction of the ISS is still ongoing and is scheduled to complete in December 2011.
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William Crooks
Photograph: National Photo Company, Restoration: Adam Cuerden
The William Crooks is a 4-4-0 steam locomotive that was the first locomotive to operate in the U.S. state of Minnesota, beginning in 1861. It was named after William Crooks, the chief mechanical engineer for the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, who earlier served as a colonel in the 6th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. Crooks laid out the initial ten-mile track between Minneapolis and St. Paul on which the locomotive operated. It was retired from regular service in 1897, but operated special services for several further decades. It is now in the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth.
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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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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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Image 19
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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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 1A late Bronze Age sword or dagger blade (from History of technology)
Image 2An axehead made of iron, dating from the Swedish Iron Age (from History of technology)
Image 3Self-replicating 3D printer (from Emerging technologies)
Image 4The compartmented water wheel, here its overshot version (from History of technology)
Image 5Dome of Florence Cathedral (from History of technology)
Image 6Johannes Gutenberg's printing press was voted the most important invention of the second millennium. (from Invention)
Image 7Alessandro Volta with the first electrical battery. Volta is recognized as an influential inventor. (from Invention)
Image 8Walls at Sacsayhuaman (from History of technology)
Image 9Agriculture preceded writing in the history of technology. (from History of technology)
Image 10Ford assembly line, 1913. The magneto assembly line was the first. (from History of technology)
Image 11'BUILD YOUR OWN TELEVISION RECEIVER.' Science and Invention magazine cover, November 1928 (from Invention)
Image 12Clock from Salisbury Cathedral, ca. 1386 (from History of technology)
Image 13The preserved Rocket (from History of technology)
Image 14Top 30 AI patent applicants in 2016 (from Emerging technologies)
Image 15A 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 16Edison electric light bulbs 1879–80 (from History of technology)
Image 17Pont du Gard in France, a Roman aqueduct (from History of technology)
Image 18Eric M. C. Tigerstedt (1887–1925) was known as a pioneer of sound-on-film technology. Tigerstedt in 1915. (from Invention)
Image 19The 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 20A water-powered mine hoist used for raising ore, ca. 1556 (from History of technology)
Image 21Solid-state air batteries
Li-Air composition (from Emerging technologies)
Image 22A variety of stone tools (from History of technology)
Image 23Newcomen steam engine for pumping mines (from History of technology)
Image 24NASA Fuel cell stack
Direct-methanol cell (from Emerging technologies)
Image 25Thomas Edison with his second phonograph, photographed by Levin Corbin Handy in Washington, April 1878 (from History of technology)
Image 26Design for a flying machine (c.1488) by da Vinci (from History of technology)
Image 273D printer (from Emerging technologies)

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

... that Justin Yu, the current Classic Tetris World Champion, is also a cellist in MIT's video game orchestra?
... 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 OPTi Inc. won a patent suit against Apple for unauthorized use of "predictive snooping" technology?
... 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 Małgorzata Kalinowska-Iszkowska was awarded a Polish Gold Cross of Merit for her work in information technology?
... that Guy Parmelin, now President of Switzerland, opened the study program of cyber security of the Lucerne School of Information Technology in 2018?
... that Pamela McCorduck, who chronicled the evolution of artificial intelligence, regretted not recognizing the technology's potential for misuse?
... that Mary Earle was born near Ben Nevis, and although she became a professor of food technology in New Zealand, she never forgot her Scottish roots?

News

See also: 2024 in science and technology

September 23, 2024 –: Swedish lithium-ion technology developer Northvolt announces revised company operational scopes and its intention to layoff 1,600 workers in the country. (CBC)
September 13, 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: Reuters reports that Russia has begun production of thousands of Garpiya-A1 long-range combat drones used against Ukrainian civilian and military targets, that incorporate engines, parts, and technology from China. (Reuters)
August 21, 2024 –: With regards to the rapid growth of the artificial intelligence market, Bloomberg alleges that technology companies are "concealing their actual carbon footprints" by invoking outdated emissions accounting rules. (Bloomberg)
August 18, 2024 – Libyan crisis: The Central Bank of Libya suspends all operations following the kidnapping of the head of its information technology department by an unknown party. (Reuters)