Portal:Technology

The Technology Portal

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 prehistoric times, followed by the control of fire, which contributed to the growth of the human brain and the development of language during the Ice Age. 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...)

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Image 1
New York State Route 10 (NY 10) is a north–south state highway in the Central New York and North Country regions of New York in the United States. It extends for 155 miles (249 km) from the Quickway (NY 17) (Future Interstate 86) in Deposit, Delaware County to NY 8 at Higgins Bay, a hamlet in the Hamilton County town of Arietta. NY 10 begins concurrent with NY 8. While NY 8 follows a more westerly alignment between Deposit and Higgins Bay via Utica, NY 10 veers to the east, serving Delhi, Cobleskill, and Canajoharie. Along the way, the road intersects Interstate 88 (I-88) near Cobleskill and U.S. Route 20 (US 20) in Sharon Springs.

NY 10 was assigned in 1924; however, it initially followed a completely different alignment than it does today. At the time, it began at the New Jersey state line in Rockland County and followed modern US 9W north to Albany. From here, it continued to Saranac Lake via Schenectady, Saratoga Springs, Lake George, Chestertown, North Creek, Long Lake, and Tupper Lake. It was extended northeast to Plattsburgh by 1926 but truncated to Schenectady in 1927. In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, all of NY 10 south of Long Lake and north of Lake Clear Junction was moved onto a new, more westerly alignment through the state. The route was cut back to its current northern terminus in Arietta c. 1960. (Full article...)
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The Hutchinson River Parkway (known colloquially as the Hutch) is a controlled-access parkway in southern New York in the United States. It extends for 18.71 miles (30.11 km) from the Bruckner Interchange in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx to the New York–Connecticut state line at Rye Brook. The parkway continues south from the Bruckner Interchange as the Whitestone Expressway (Interstate 678) and north into Greenwich, Connecticut, as the Merritt Parkway (Connecticut Route 15). The roadway is named for the Hutchinson River, a 10-mile-long (16 km) stream in southern Westchester County that the road follows alongside. The river, in turn, was named for English colonial religious leader Anne Hutchinson.

Construction of the parkway began in 1924 and was completed in 1941. The section of the parkway between Eastern Boulevard (now Bruckner Boulevard) in the Bronx and U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Pelham Manor was designated as New York State Route 1X (NY 1X) from 1941 to 1946. NY 1A was subsequently realigned to follow the Hutch between Eastern Boulevard and US 1. The NY 1A designation was removed around 1962. (Full article...)
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M-49 is a north–south state trunkline highway in the south-central portion of the US state of Michigan. It runs from the Ohio state line north to Litchfield through rural Hillsdale County. M-49 is the only Michigan highway in which the road crossing into another state has the same state highway number. M-49 continues as State Route 49 (SR 49), near the Indiana–Michigan–Ohio tripoint south of Camden. The highway dates back to 1930 and was only altered once in the 1940s. M-49 runs through Southern Michigan farmlands connecting several small towns along its path. At one point, M-49 briefly runs concurrently with US Highway 12 (US 12). (Full article...)
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Farfisa (Fabbriche Riunite di Fisarmoniche) is a manufacturer of electronics based in Osimo, Italy, founded in 1946. The company manufactured a series of compact electronic organs in the 1960s and 1970s, including the Compact, FAST, Professional and VIP ranges, and later, a series of other keyboard instruments. They were used by a number of popular musicians including Sam the Sham, Country Joe and the Fish, Pink Floyd, Sly Stone, Blondie, and the B-52s.

The company was formed after three Italian accordion manufacturers combined to form a single company. They began to produce electronic instruments in the late 1950s, and combo organs were introduced in response to similar instruments such as the Vox Continental. The relatively inexpensive Italian labour allowed Farfisa to sell their products cheaper than the competition, which led to their commercial success. Popular models included the Compact series introduced in 1964, the Professional in 1967, the FAST in 1968 and the VIP in 1970. The success of Farfisa organs declined with the increased popularity of the Hammond organ in rock groups during the 1970s, and in response the company produced models that could emulate a Hammond, and introduced electronic pianos and synthesisers. The Farfisa brand name saw a brief revival in the late 1970s as part of the new wave movement, and the final models were produced in the early 1980s. The company has survived, and Farfisa is now a consumer electronics manufacturer. (Full article...)
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Code42 is an American cybersecurity software company based in Minneapolis specializing in insider risk management. It is the maker of the cloud-native data protection product Incydr and security microlearning product Instructor. Code42's Incydr is a SaaS data-loss protection product. Incydr is designed to help enterprise security teams detect insider risks to data that could lead to data leak and data loss and insider threat breaches, and respond to them appropriately. Code42's Instructor is an integrated microlearning tool that allows security teams to send out security training videos to teach employees how to manage risk. (Full article...)
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Route 81 is a freeway in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The route is a connector between exit 13A of the New Jersey Turnpike (Interstate 95) and U.S. Route 1/9 near Newark Liberty International Airport. It runs for 1.18 miles (1.90 km), entirely within the city of Elizabeth in Union County. A freeway called Route S100 was initially proposed on the current alignment of Route 81 in 1938; it, along with its parent Route 100, was never built. The current route was conceived in the 1960s as a freeway replacement for Route 164, which followed Humboldt Avenue, a surface road. It was to be designated Route 76, but was renumbered to Route 81 when Interstate 76 was created in New Jersey.

It was legislated in 1966 to run parallel to the New Jersey Turnpike from exit 13 until North Avenue, where it would turn northwest and intersect U.S. Route 1/9 near the airport. The routing was eventually shifted to begin from a new interchange along the New Jersey Turnpike. A total of $50 million in funding was allocated for the road and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was responsible for designing the road. The state had wanted the port authority to pay for construction; however it was ruled that they could not build the road. Construction on Route 81 took place between 1979 and 1982. (Full article...)
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Pennsylvania Route 97 (PA 97) is one of two Pennsylvania state highways that carries the PA 97 designation; the other PA 97 is in Erie County. This southern PA 97, known for most of its length as Baltimore Pike, runs 9.363 miles (15.068 km) from the Maryland state line near Littlestown, where the highway continues as Maryland Route 97 (MD 97), northwest to U.S. Route 15 (US 15) near Gettysburg. PA 97 connects Gettysburg and Littlestown in southeastern Adams County. The highway also links those communities with Westminster and Baltimore. From PA 97's northern end, Baltimore Pike continues toward Gettysburg as State Route 2035 (SR 2035) through the Gettysburg Battlefield Historic District, where it provides access to the Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center.

Baltimore Pike was built as a turnpike in the early 19th century to connect Gettysburg, Littlestown, and Baltimore. The turnpike was a prominent linear feature during the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg despite not being the focus of a particular skirmish. Baltimore Pike was designated one of the original legislative routes in the early 1910s and became the northernmost part of US 140 in the late 1920s. The U.S. Highway was widened and resurfaced in the 1940s. When the US 140 designation was retired in the late 1970s, the highway became PA 97 to match the adjacent Maryland highway. With the creation of PA 97, the route had its northern terminus at the US 15 interchange while Baltimore Pike north of there became unnumbered. (Full article...)

Selected picture

Image 1
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.
Image 2
Windmill
Photo credit: Michael Reeve
Pitstone Windmill, believed to be the oldest windmill in the British Isles

A windmill is an engine powered by wind energy. In Europe, windmills have been used since the Middle Ages. They were developed from the 12th century, apparently from technology gained by crusaders who came into contact with windmills in the Middle East. Persian sources indicate windmill use as early as the 7th century BC. In the United States, the development of water-pumping windmills was a major factor in allowing the farming of vast areas of North America.
Image 3
Nuclear weapon
Image credit: Fastfission
Schematic representation of the two methods with which to assemble an atomic bomb. An A-bomb produces its explosive energy through nuclear fission reactions alone. A mass of fissile material (enriched uranium or plutonium) is assembled into a supercritical mass—the amount of material needed to start an exponentially growing nuclear chain reaction—either by shooting one piece of sub-critical material into another (the "gun" method, shown on top here), or by compressing a sub-critical sphere of material using chemical explosives to many times its original density (the "implosion" method, at bottom).
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.
Image 5
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.
Image 6
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.
Image 7
Keypunch
Picture: Unknown; restoration: Mmxx
A woman using a Hollerith pantograph, a machine developed by Herman Hollerith for the punching of cards, providing data which could then be processed. Such tools were used in the 1890 United States Census, the first time the country's census was tabulated by machine.
Image 8
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.
Image 9
M198 howitzer
Photo credit: L Cpl. Samantha L. Jones, USMC
Nine Marines from Mike Battery, 4th Battalion, 14th Marines operate the 155mm M198 howitzer in November 2004. The battery was based at Camp Fallujah, Iraq and was supporting Operation Phantom Fury. All nine members of the M198 crew are present.
Image 10
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.
Image 11
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.
Image 12
Laptop computer
Credit: Mike McGregor
The OLPC XO-1 is an inexpensive subnotebook laptop computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries.
Image 13
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.
Image 14
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.
Image 15
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.
Image 16
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].
Image 17
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.
Image 18
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.
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.
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.

Main topics

General images -

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

Image 1'BUILD YOUR OWN TELEVISION RECEIVER.' Science and Invention magazine cover, November 1928 (from Invention)
Image 23D printer (from Emerging technologies)
Image 3The 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 4Alessandro Volta with the first electrical battery. Volta is recognized as an influential inventor. (from Invention)
Image 5A water-powered mine hoist used for raising ore, ca. 1556 (from History of technology)
Image 6Top 30 AI patent applicants in 2016 (from Emerging technologies)
Image 7Dome of Florence Cathedral (from History of technology)
Image 8Pont du Gard in France, a Roman aqueduct (from History of technology)
Image 9Agriculture preceded writing in the history of technology. (from History of technology)
Image 10Design for a flying machine (c.1488) by da Vinci (from History of technology)
Image 11Solid-state air batteries
Li-Air composition (from Emerging technologies)
Image 12An axehead made of iron, dating from the Swedish Iron Age (from History of technology)
Image 13A late Bronze Age sword or dagger blade (from History of technology)
Image 14The Gutenberg press was voted the most important invention of the second millennium. (from Invention)
Image 15NASA Fuel cell stack
Direct-methanol cell. (from Emerging technologies)
Image 16Edison electric light bulbs 1879–80 (from History of technology)
Image 17Eric M. C. Tigerstedt (1887–1925) was known as a pioneer of sound-on-film technology. Tigerstedt in 1915. (from Invention)
Image 18Walls at Sacsayhuaman (from History of technology)
Image 19A variety of stone tools (from History of technology)
Image 20The preserved Rocket (from History of technology)
Image 21Self-replicating 3D printer (from Emerging technologies)
Image 22Newcomen steam engine for pumping mines (from History of technology)
Image 23A 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 24Thomas Edison with his second phonograph, photographed by Levin Corbin Handy in Washington, April 1878 (from History of technology)
Image 25The compartmented water wheel, here its overshot version (from History of technology)
Image 26Ford assembly line, 1913. The magneto assembly line was the first. (from History of technology)
Image 27Clock from Salisbury Cathedral, ca. 1386 (from History of technology)

Did you know (auto-generated) -

... 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 Atari 410 Program Recorder was used to store programs on the Atari 8-bit family, but was also used for computer aided instruction?
... that Suresh Jadhav led the development of the COVID-19 vaccine marketed as Covishield?
... that ice XVII (structure shown) potentially has a use in green technology as a medium for storing hydrogen?
... that Criccieth Castle combined the "latest advances in military technology" with the "haphazard Welsh castle building style"?
... 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?
... that it was Caltech experimental physicist Rana X. Adhikari's idea to build a gravitational-wave observatory in India?
... 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?

News

See also: 2024 in science and technology

May 10, 2024 – Israel–Hamas war protests: Police dismantle encampments and arrest dozens of students protesting at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Reuters)

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