Portal:Technology

The Technology Portal

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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.

Image 1
Route 121 is a short highway in northwestern Missouri. It begins at U.S. Route 69 (US 69) south of Cameron, where it begins travelling eastward. The road intersects a county route and crosses over two streams. The route ends at the Wallace State Park entrance, where the road becomes Route HH after the intersection. The route was opened around 1936, serving as the connector between US 69 and the state park. The road cost $18,000 to build in 1935, and it allowed federal construction to begin at the park. (Full article...)
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Farm to Market Road 1528 in Klondike

Farm to Market Road 1528 (FM 1528) is a farm-to-market road located in the western and central portions of Delta County in the U.S. state of Texas. The highway is approximately 11.4 miles (18.3 km) in length, and travels from FM 64 in the community of Antioch to SH 154 in the county seat of Cooper.

Early roads existed in the place of FM 1528 by 1936, and a short section of highway between SH 27 (now SH 24) and Klondike was designated as Loop 39 in 1939, and FM 1528 was designated in 1949. The route of the highway has been altered since its designation, including rerouting due to the construction of Cooper Lake. (Full article...)
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Hudson Terminal towers in 1910

Hudson Terminal was a rapid transit station and office-tower complex in the Radio Row neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Opened during 1908 and 1909, it was composed of a terminal station for the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (H&M), as well as two 22-story office skyscrapers and three basement stories. The complex occupied much of a two-block site bounded by Greenwich, Cortlandt, Church, and Fulton Streets, which later became the World Trade Center site.

The railroad terminal contained five tracks and six platforms serving H&M trains to and from New Jersey; these trains traveled via the Downtown Hudson Tubes, under the Hudson River, to the west. The two 22-story office skyscrapers above the terminal, the Fulton Building to the north and the Cortlandt Building to the south, were designed by architect James Hollis Wells of the firm Clinton and Russell in the Romanesque Revival style. The basements contained facilities such as a shopping concourse, an electrical substation, and baggage areas. The complex could accommodate 687,000 people per day, more than Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan. (Full article...)
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New York State Route 99 (NY 99) was a state highway in Franklin County. The western terminus of the route was at an intersection with NY 30 in Duane. Its eastern terminus was at a junction with NY 3 near the Franklin community of Merrillsville. The narrow, winding route passed through isolated and heavily wooded areas of Adirondack Park. NY 99 was known as the Port Kent–Hopkinton Turnpike and maintained by Franklin County as a county highway. The state highway had been co-designated, and is signed today solely as County Route 26 (CR 26).

The routing of NY 99 was originally part of the Port Kent and Hopkinton Turnpike, a 19th-century toll road that began in the town of Hopkinton and passed through central Franklin County on its way to the hamlet of Port Kent on the shores of Lake Champlain. The portion of the turnpike between Duane Center and Merrillsville was designated as NY 99 as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York. It remained unchanged until September 26, 1994, when the NY 99 designation was removed from the highway. (Full article...)
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Maryland Route 331 (MD 331) is a 28.74-mile (46.25 km) state highway on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in the United States. Signed north-south, the route runs from Vienna in Dorchester County northwest to Easton in Talbot County, intersecting U.S. Route 50 (US 50) at both ends. MD 331 is a two-lane undivided road most of its length that passes mostly through agricultural areas. The road also passes through the communities of Hurlock and Preston along the way. It encounters several routes during its journey, including MD 14 near Rhodesdale and MD 16 in the Preston area, both of which the route forms concurrencies with. In addition, the route also intersects with MD 392 and MD 307 in Hurlock and with MD 318 near Preston.

Most of present-day MD 331 was designated as part of US 213 in 1926 when the U.S. Highway System was established. By 1940, US 213 was moved to a new alignment that crossed the Choptank River at Cambridge on a bridge built in 1935 and MD 331 was designated to run from Vienna to Easton. Both ends of MD 331 have been shortened since, with the southernmost portion of MD 331 curtailed following the completion of the US 50 bypass of Vienna by the 1990s and the northern terminus of the route cut back to US 50 in 2004 when the state-maintained portion of Dover Road to Dover Street in Easton was turned over to the city. (Full article...)
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Recreational Road 11 (RE 11) is a Recreational Road located in Concho County, in the western region of the U.S. state of Texas. The 4.3-mile (6.9 km) long highway connects Farm to Market Road 1929 (FM 1929) to Concho Park and Marina, a public park on O. H. Ivie Lake. The roadway primarily travels through rural agricultural land along a peninsula into the reservoir. Segments of road first appeared in the location of RE 11 around 1940. Portions of the highway were designated as part of Ranch to Market Road 2134 (RM 2134) in 1953, but was removed as part of that highway due to the construction of the O.H. Ivie Reservoir. RE 11 was designated in December 1996. (Full article...)
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Exit B of Farrer Park MRT station.

Farrer Park MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station along the North East Line (NEL), located on the boundary of Kallang and Rochor planning areas, Singapore. To facilitate its construction, several buildings in its vicinity had to be shut down and vacated. Despite this, residents alongside Tessensohn Road and Starlight Terrace asked for more time to move. The significant concentration of marine clay in the ground and its proximity to Little India proved to be challenges in its construction, due to the risk of building damage. The station opened on 20 June 2003 in tandem with the rest of the NEL.

It is one of the two stations that serve the ethnic district of Little India. The station sits underneath the Connexion building, Farrer Park Hospital and One Farrer Hotel. Rhythmic Exuberance by Poh Siew Wah is displayed at this station as part of the Art-in-Transit programme. Rhythmic Exurberance consists of a mix of realistic and abstract forms. It consists of five murals depicting various sports, highlighting Farrer Park's history as a sports hub prior to World War II. (Full article...)

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Image 1
Nesjavellir
Photo credit: Gretar Ívarsson
The Nesjavellir geothermal power plant, located near Þingvellir, Iceland is the largest of five such plants in the country. Because of the high concentration of volcanoes in Iceland, geothermal energy is so inexpensive that in the wintertime, some pavements in Reykjavík and Akureyri are heated.
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Image 2
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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Image 3
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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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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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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Nice tramway
Photograph: Myrabella
The Nice tramway crossing Place Garibaldi, Nice, where it lowers its pantograph and is powered by batteries. This 8.7-kilometre (5.4 mi), single-line tramway is operated by Veolia Transdev. It opened on 24 November 2007, replacing bus lines 1, 2, 5 and 18.
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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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Image 8
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.
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Image 9
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".
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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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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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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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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.
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Image 14
Curiosity (rover)
Photograph: NASA
A self-portrait by the Mars rover Curiosity on October 31, 2012. The mosaic is stitched from a set of 55 images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager at "Rocknest," the spot in Gale crater where the mission's first scoop sampling took place. Self-portraits such as this help NASA document the state of the rover and track changes, such as dust accumulation and wheel wear.
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Image 15
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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N700 Series Shinkansen
Photograph credit: Dllu

The N700 Series Shinkansen is a Japanese Shinkansen high-speed train with tilting capability developed jointly by JR Central and JR West. It has been used on the Tokaido and San'yō Shinkansen lines since 2007. This photograph shows the train travelling at approximately 300 km/h through Himeji Station, and was captured with a line scan camera using strip photography.
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Image 17
SOCATA TBM
Photograph credit: Michael Mainiero
The SOCATA TBM (now Daher TBM) is a family of high-performance single-engine turboprop business and utility light aircraft manufactured by Daher. This SOCATA TBM 900 was photographed in flight during the 2015 EAA AirVenture Oshkosh airshow in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The aircraft features a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-64 engine, and a five-blade carbon-fiber propeller, which increases performance and decreases cabin noise. In a passenger configuration, the pressurized cabin is typically fitted with highly finished interiors, featuring luxury materials such as leather and wood veneers.
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Image 18
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.
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Image 19
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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Image 20
Building implosion
Photo credit: Heptagon
A multiple exposure composite image of the implosion of a chimney at the former brewery "Henninger" in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. This controlled demolition technique involves strategically placing explosive material and timing its detonation so that a structure collapses on itself in a matter of seconds, minimizing the physical damage to its immediate surroundings.
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The following are images from various technology-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Pont du Gard in France, a Roman aqueduct (from History of technology)
Image 2A water-powered mine hoist used for raising ore, ca. 1556 (from History of technology)
Image 3A late Bronze Age sword or dagger blade (from History of technology)
Image 4Newcomen steam engine for pumping mines (from History of technology)
Image 5Johannes Gutenberg's printing press was voted the most important invention of the second millennium. (from Invention)
Image 6Dome of Florence Cathedral (from History of technology)
Image 7Edison electric light bulbs 1879–80 (from History of technology)
Image 8Thomas Edison with his second phonograph, photographed by Levin Corbin Handy in Washington, April 1878 (from History of technology)
Image 9Clock from Salisbury Cathedral, ca. 1386 (from History of technology)
Image 10'BUILD YOUR OWN TELEVISION RECEIVER.' Science and Invention magazine cover, November 1928 (from Invention)
Image 11Self-replicating 3D printer (from Emerging technologies)
Image 12Alessandro Volta with the first electrical battery. Volta is recognized as an influential inventor. (from Invention)
Image 13The compartmented water wheel, here its overshot version (from History of technology)
Image 14The 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 15NASA Fuel cell stack
Direct-methanol cell (from Emerging technologies)
Image 16Agriculture preceded writing in the history of technology. (from History of technology)
Image 17The preserved Rocket (from History of technology)
Image 18A 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 19Design for a flying machine (c.1488) by da Vinci (from History of technology)
Image 20Ford assembly line, 1913. The magneto assembly line was the first. (from History of technology)
Image 21Walls at Sacsayhuaman (from History of technology)
Image 22An axehead made of iron, dating from the Swedish Iron Age (from History of technology)
Image 23Solid-state air batteries
Li-Air composition (from Emerging technologies)
Image 24Top 30 AI patent applicants in 2016 (from Emerging technologies)
Image 253D printer (from Emerging technologies)
Image 26A variety of stone tools (from History of technology)
Image 27Eric M. C. Tigerstedt (1887–1925) was known as a pioneer of sound-on-film technology. Tigerstedt in 1915. (from Invention)

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

... that Criccieth Castle combined the "latest advances in military technology" with the "haphazard Welsh castle building style"?
... that Byrnihat was ranked by an air technology company as the world's most polluted city in 2024?
... 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 scholars have described the 1946 book The Failure of Technology as a precursor to the environmental movement?
... that vehicles in Star Trucker still look like American semi-trucks from the 1970s, despite having technology such as warp drivers and maglocks?
... that Justin Yu, the current Classic Tetris World Champion, is also a cellist in MIT's video game orchestra?
... that Carmel Naughton, having been told that girls were "stupid and couldn't do maths", sponsored a STEM scholarship fund?
... that Zirconic was a U.S. government effort to create reconnaissance satellites equipped with stealth technology?

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July 1, 2026 – Economic consequences of the Russo-Ukrainian war: Ukraine approves a mechanism for exporting domestically produced weapons and military technologies to raise funds for its defense effort against Russia and attract foreign investment, while requiring that the Ukrainian military's supply needs remain the priority. (AFP via The Straits Times)
June 29, 2026 – China–Japan relations: China adds 20 Japanese organizations to a dual-use export blacklist and places 20 others on a watchlist, citing concerns over Japan's military capabilities amid worsening relations between China and Japan. (AFP via The Straits Times)
June 19, 2026 –: Malaysian researchers identify Pleurocordyceps cornusynnemata, a new fungal species in Borneo that parasitizes Ophiocordyceps fungi infecting ants. Scientists also report the discovery of a previously undocumented spider-infecting fungus. (AFP via CBS News)
June 16, 2026 – China–Kenya relations, Kenya–Taiwan relations: Taiwan says the Kenyan foreign ministry revoked visas issued to Taiwanese scientists and prevented them from attending the Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa. China states that Kenya's actions are consistent with its adherence to the One China policy. (Reuters)
June 10, 2026 –: Chinese scientists discover the largest known whale graveyard in the Indian Ocean, identifying nearly 500 whale skeletons spanning millions of years and documenting deep-sea ecosystems associated with the remains. A new species, Pterocetus diamantinae named after the location, was also discovered. (AFP via France 24) (The Guardian)
May 12, 2026 –: American autonomous driving technology company Waymo recalls 3,800 robotaxis over risks that they could enter flooded areas. (Reuters)