Portal:Technology

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

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

Shortcut

P:TECH

Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word technology may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, industry, communication, transportation, and daily life. Technologies include physical objects like utensils or machines and intangible tools such as software.

Many technological advancements have led to societal changes. The earliest known technology is the stone tool, used in the prehistoric era, followed by fire use, which contributed to the growth of the human brain and the development of language in the Ice Age. The invention of the wheel in the Bronze Age enabled wider travel and the creation of more complex machines. Recent technological developments, including the printing press, the telephone, and the Internet have lowered communication barriers 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
Kominato Station (小湊駅, Kominato-eki) is a railway station of the Aoimori Railway Line located in the central district of the town of Hiranai in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. The station has been operating since 1891, though the most recent station building, which consists of a side platform and an island platform connected to the station building by a footbridge, was completed in 1986. Since 2010, the station has been operated by the Aoimori Railway Company, a third sector, regional rail operator. It is the busiest railway station in Hiranai.

Passenger trains serve the station 17 hours a day; the departure time between trains is roughly 30 minutes during the morning peak with reduced frequency at other times. The station also serves as a bus station for Shimokita Kōtsu [ja], with local bus routes connecting the station and central Hiranai to communities throughout the town. (Full article...)
Image 2
Delaware Route 82 (DE 82) is a state highway in the northwest suburbs of Wilmington in New Castle County, Delaware. The route runs 5.49 miles (8.84 km) from DE 52 near Greenville to the Pennsylvania state line near Yorklyn, where the road continues into that state as Pennsylvania Route 82 (PA 82). The route runs through areas of woods and fields in northern New Castle County, with much of the route paralleling the Red Clay Creek. The entire route is a part of the Red Clay Scenic Byway, created in 2005. DE 82 was first numbered by 1952 on its current alignment. In 2010, the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) proposed eliminating the route number, but the plan fell through due to public opposition. (Full article...)
Image 3
M-100 is a north–south state trunkline highway in the central region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It runs between Potterville and Grand Ledge, connecting Interstate 69 (I-69) and I-96 west of the state capital, Lansing. The highway was previously a section of M-16. After M-16 was realigned, M-100 was created by 1927. Three extensions in the 1930s, 1950s and 1990s resulted in the current highway routing. (Full article...)
Image 4

Otto Julius Zobel (October 20, 1887 – January 1970) was an electrical engineer who worked for the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) in the early part of the 20th century. Zobel's work on filter design was revolutionary and led, in conjunction with the work of John R. Carson, to significant commercial advances for AT&T in the field of frequency-division multiplex (FDM) telephone transmissions.

Although much of Zobel's work has been superseded by more modern filter designs, it remains the basis of filter theory and his papers are still referenced today. Zobel invented the m-derived filter
and the constant-resistance filter, which remains in use. (Full article...)
Image 5

Roosevelt station is a light rail station located in the Roosevelt neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is served by the 1 Line of Sound Transit's Link light rail system, which continues north to Northgate station and south to Downtown Seattle and SeaTac. The underground station consists of a single island platform connected to the surface via a mezzanine and two entrances along 12th Avenue Northeast at Northeast 65th and 67th streets.

Construction on the Northgate extension was approved by voters in a 2008 ballot measure and began in 2012. Two tunnel boring machines used to build the light rail tunnels arrived at Roosevelt station in 2015, on their way between Northgate and the University District. The station opened on October 2, 2021. (Full article...)
Image 6

Mac Mini (stylized as Mac mini) is a small form factor desktop computer developed and marketed by Apple Inc. , it is positioned between the consumer all-in-one iMac and the professional Mac Studio and Mac Pro as one of four current Mac desktop computers. Since launch, it has shipped without a display, keyboard, and mouse. The machine was initially branded as "BYODKM" (Bring Your Own Display, Keyboard, and Mouse) as a strategic pitch to encourage users to switch from PCs running operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and Linux.

In January 2005, the original Mac Mini was introduced with the PowerPC G4 CPU. In February 2006, Apple announced the second-generation lineup. It featured more advanced components and internal software updates, and it switched the CPU to the Intel Core Solo. The third-generation, which was unveiled in June 2010, had a thinner, unibody aluminum case and an HDMI port, and was more readily positioned as a home theater device and an alternative to the Apple TV. (Full article...)
Image 7
Coeur Alaska, Inc. v. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, 557 U.S. 261 (2009), is a United States Supreme Court case that was decided in favor of Coeur Alaska's permit to dump mine waste in a lake. The case addressed tailings from the Kensington mine, an underground mine located in Alaska. The gold mine had not operated since 1928, and Coeur Alaska obtained a permit in 2005 from the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to dispose of up to 4.5 million tons of tailings in Lower Slate Lake, which is located in a National Forest.

The suit was filed by three environmental non-governmental organizations and brought before the United States District Court for the District of Alaska who found in favor of Coeur Alaska. The District Court's decision was overturned by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals before being brought before the Supreme Court, who also found in favor of Coeur Alaska. (Full article...)

More recognized articles

Selected picture

Image 1
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.
More selected pictures
Image 2
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.
More selected pictures
Image 3
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.
More selected pictures
Image 4
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.
More selected pictures
Image 5
Assut de l'Or Bridge
Photograph: Diego Delso
The Assut de l'Or Bridge is a white single-pylon cable-stayed bridge in the City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia, Spain. Completed in 2008, it was designed by Valencian architect and civil engineer Santiago Calatrava as a variant of his cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge in Seville.
More selected pictures
Image 6
Wiesen Viaduct
Photograph: David Gubler
The Wiesen Viaduct is a single-track railway viaduct (concrete blocks with dimension stone coverage) which spans the Landwasser southwest of the hamlet of Wiesen, Switzerland. Designed by Henning Friedrich, then the chief engineer of the Rhaetian Railway, it was built between 1906 and 1909 by the contractor G. Marasi (Westermann & Cie, Zürich) under the supervision of P. Salaz and Hans Studer (RhB). The Rhaetian Railway still owns and uses the viaduct today for regular service with 29 passenger trains per day. An important element of the Davos–Filisur railway, the viaduct is 88.9 metres (292 ft) high, 210 metres (690 ft) long, and has a main span of 55 metres (180 ft). In 1926, the viaduct was the inspiration for Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's painting Brücke bei Wiesen.
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
Australia Telescope Compact Array
Photograph credit: John Masterson, CSIRO; restored by Bammesk
The Australia Telescope Compact Array is a radio telescope operated by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) at the Paul Wild Observatory, 25 km (16 mi) west of the town of Narrabri in New South Wales, Australia. The telescope is an array of six identical dishes each 22 metres (72 ft) in diameter, which commonly operate in aperture synthesis mode to produce images from radio waves. Five of the dishes can be moved along a 3-kilometre (2 mi) railway track; the sixth is situated three kilometres west of the end of the main track. Each dish weighs about 270 tonnes (270 long tons; 300 short tons).

This photograph, showing five of the Australia Telescope Compact Array's dishes, was taken around 1984, in the late phase of the construction process. It is a long-exposure photograph taken in darkness in the late evening; during the exposure, the photographer, John Masterson, walked around the dishes firing off over 130 flashes using a hand-held flash gun.
More selected pictures
Image 9
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 10
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.
More selected pictures
Image 11
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.
More selected pictures
Image 12
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 13
Caliper
Image credit: Joaquim Alves Gaspar
An animation showing how to use a vernier caliper, which is a caliper that uses a vernier scale to interpolate linear measurements. Vernier calipers can measure internal and external dimensions using, respectively, the uppermost and lower jaws, and also depths, using the depth probe (located at the right end). In this example, the first two digits (2.4) are decided by the location of the zero of the vernier scale in the centimeter scale, and the last digit (0.07), by the first line of the vernier scale that exactly matches a line of the centimeter scale above.
More selected pictures
Image 14
George Washington Carver
Photograph credit: Unknown; restored by Adam Cuerden
George Washington Carver (1860s–1943) was an American agricultural scientist and inventor. Born into slavery in Diamond, Missouri, he was raised by his master Moses Carver after being emancipated, having been separated from his parents as an infant during a kidnapping incident. After college, Carver became a professor at Tuskegee Institute, where he developed techniques to improve soils depleted by repeated plantings of cotton. He wanted poor farmers to grow alternative crops, such as peanuts and sweet potatoes, as a source of their own food and to improve their quality of life. Carver spent years developing and promoting products made from peanuts, although none became commercially successful. Apart from his work to improve the lives of farmers, he was also a leader in promoting environmentalism. Carver received numerous honors for his work, including the NAACP's Spingarn Medal. In an era of very high racial polarization, his fame reached beyond the black community; he was widely recognized and praised in the white community for his many achievements and talents. In 1941, Time magazine dubbed Carver a "black Leonardo".

This picture of Carver was taken around 1910 and is in the collection of the Tuskegee University archives.
More selected pictures
Image 15
Rail transport
Photograph: David Gubler
Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. The oldest, man-hauled railways date to the 6th century B.C.; the method grew more popular after the introduction of steam locomotives in the 19th century. Here we can see four BNSF GE C44-9W diesel locomotives hauling a mixed freight train along the Columbia River in the US.
More selected pictures
Image 16
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 17
Laptop computer
Credit: Mike McGregor
The OLPC XO-1 is an inexpensive subnotebook laptop computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries.
More selected pictures
Image 18
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.
More selected pictures
Image 19
Union Pacific 844
Photo: Drew Jacksich; edit: Bruce1ee
Union Pacific 844 at Painted Rocks, Nevada, on a run from Elko to Sparks, on September 15, 2009. Built in 1944, it was the last steam locomotive delivered to Union Pacific and is the only steam locomotive never retired by a North American Class I railroad.
More selected pictures
Image 20
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

Main topics

General images - load new batch

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

Image 13D printer (from Emerging technologies)
Image 2Artificial intelligence (from Emerging technologies)
Image 3A late Bronze Age sword or dagger blade (from History of technology)
Image 4Self-replicating 3D printer (from Emerging technologies)
Image 5A water-powered mine hoist used for raising ore, ca. 1556 (from History of technology)
Image 6'BUILD YOUR OWN TELEVISION RECEIVER.' Science and Invention magazine cover, November 1928 (from Invention)
Image 7A variety of stone tools (from History of technology)
Image 8A 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 9The compartmented water wheel, here its overshot version (from History of technology)
Image 10Top 30 AI patent applicants in 2016 (from Emerging technologies)
Image 11Walls at Sacsayhuaman (from History of technology)
Image 12Clock from Salisbury Cathedral, ca. 1386 (from History of technology)
Image 13Ford assembly line, 1913. The magneto assembly line was the first. (from History of technology)
Image 14Newcomen steam engine for pumping mines (from History of technology)
Image 15The Mars Exploration Rovers provided huge amounts of information by functioning well beyond NASA's original lifespan estimates. (from History of technology)
Image 16The preserved Rocket (from History of technology)
Image 17Edison electric light bulbs 1879–80 (from History of technology)
Image 18The 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 19NASA Fuel cell stack
Direct-methanol cell. (from Emerging technologies)
Image 20Eric M. C. Tigerstedt (1887–1925) was known as a pioneer of sound-on-film technology. Tigerstedt in 1915. (from Invention)
Image 21Pont du Gard in France, a Roman aqueduct (from History of technology)
Image 22Agriculture preceded writing in the history of technology. (from History of technology)
Image 23Solid-state air batteries
Li-Air composition (from Emerging technologies)
Image 24An axehead made of iron, dating from the Swedish Iron Age (from History of technology)
Image 25Design for a flying machine (c.1488) by da Vinci (from History of technology)
Image 26Dome of Florence Cathedral (from History of technology)
Image 27Alessandro Volta with the first electrical battery. Volta is recognized as an influential inventor. (from Invention)

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

... that OPTi Inc. won a patent suit against Apple for unauthorized use of "predictive snooping" technology?
... that Turkey's Anadolu Shipyard signed a contract with India's Hindustan Shipyard to transfer technology for the building of five fleet support ships for the Indian Navy?
... that the melt-blowing technology used to create N95 respirators was previously used to produce ready-made ribbon bows and bra cups?
... that modified mRNA (mRNA translation depicted) is a key technology in the Moderna and BioNTech/Pfizer vaccines against COVID-19?
... that ice XVII (structure shown) potentially has a use in green technology as a medium for storing hydrogen?
... that Theresa M. Korn turned down a scholarship to the Carnegie Institute of Technology in order to become the institute's first female engineer?
... that the Atari 410 Program Recorder was used to store programs on the Atari 8-bit family, but was also used for computer aided instruction?
... that Henry E. Sigerist felt "depressed" after reading A History of Science, Technology, and Philosophy in the 16th and 17th Centuries?

News

See also: 2022 in science and technology

November 28, 2022 –: The Data Protection Commissioner of Ireland fines American technology company Meta for €265 million (US$275 million) for a data breach on its international users. (AFP via The Philippine Star)
November 18, 2022 – United States v. Elizabeth A. Holmes, et al.: Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes is sentenced by a court in the U.S. state of California to more than 11 years in prison on four counts of fraud, and for misleading investors on the reliability of her company's technology. Her sentence will begin on April 27, 2023. (BBC News)
October 16, 2022 – Legal affairs of Donald Trump: Whistleblower Will Wilkerson, a co-founder of Trump Media & Technology Group, alleges that the firm violated federal securities laws and that Donald Trump pressured executives to give shares to his wife Melania. (The Guardian)
October 2, 2022 – Mahsa Amini protests: A stand-off ensues between students, protesters, and Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces in and around the Sharif University of Tehran, as gunfire is reported amid an apparent siege of the building. (BBC News)