Portal:Technology
The Technology Portal
Technology is the application of knowledge for achieving practical goals 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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Interstate 215 (I-215), also known locally as the Belt Route, is an auxiliary Interstate in the U.S. state of Utah that forms a three-quarters loop around Salt Lake City and many of its suburbs. The route begins at the mouth of Parley's Canyon at a junction with I-80 east of the city center, and heads south through the edge of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area's eastern suburbs of Millcreek, Holladay, and Cottonwood Heights. It continues west through Murray before turning north again, passing through the city's first-ring western suburbs of Taylorsville and West Valley City. It then enters North Salt Lake and Davis County for a short distance before reaching I-15 northwest of the city center.
The Interstate was proposed in the mid-1950s, along with I-15 and I-80 through Salt Lake City. At the time, only the western portion of the belt route was assigned as I-215. The eastern portion of the belt route was designated Interstate 415. However, the I-415 designation was scrapped to provide a single route number for the entire route in 1969, with the I-215 designation covering the complete belt route. The freeway was constructed in segments, the first of which opened in 1963 between Redwood Road in North Salt Lake and 2100 North near the airport. I-215 was originally planned to be complete in the mid-1970s, but the last section, between 6200 South and 4500 South in Holladay, was not completed until 1989 because of challenges from citizens' groups over environmental impact statements. (Full article...)- K-49 is a 35.354-mile-long (56.897 km) north–south state highway in the U.S. state of Kansas. K-49 begins at U.S. Route 81 (US-81) in Caldwell, and runs north to K-42 in Viola. Along the way, K-49 has a brief overlap with US-160 south of Conway Springs. The majority of the route exists in Sumner County, with only a mile existing in Sedgwick County.
Before state highways were numbered in Kansas, there were auto trails. The southern terminus was part of the former South West Trail and Meridian Highway. K-49 was first designated as a state highway by the Kansas State Highway Commission, now known as the Kansas Department of Transportation, in 1927. At that time it ran from US-81 in Caldwell north to K-42 in Conway Springs. Then, by 1928, K-42 was realigned to a new alignment and at that time K-49 was extended north to Viola. (Full article...)
Manchester Liners was a cargo and passenger shipping company founded in 1898, based in Manchester, England. The line pioneered the regular passage of ocean-going vessels along the Manchester Ship Canal. Its main sphere of operation was the transatlantic shipping trade, but the company also operated services to the Mediterranean. All of the line's vessels were registered in the Port of Manchester, and many were lost to enemy action during the First and Second World Wars.
A successful switch from traditional to container shipping in 1968 was relatively short-lived, as the subsequent introduction elsewhere of much larger container ships meant that the company's vessels, which were restricted to a maximum length of 530 feet (160 m) imposed by the ship canal's lock chambers, could no longer compete economically. The line ceased operations in 1985. (Full article...)
The Hammersmith & City line is a London Underground line that runs between Hammersmith in west London and Barking in east London. Printed in pink on the Tube map, it serves 29 stations over 15.8 miles (25.5 km). Between Farringdon and Aldgate East it skirts the City of London, the capital's financial heart, hence the line's name. Its tunnels are just below the surface and are a similar size to those on British main lines. Most of the track and all stations are shared with either the District, Circle, or Metropolitan lines. Over 114 million passenger journeys are made each year on the Hammersmith & City and Circle lines.
In 1863, the Metropolitan Railway began the world's first underground railway service between Paddington and Farringdon with wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. The following year, a railway west from Paddington to Hammersmith was opened and this soon became operated and owned jointly by the Metropolitan and Great Western Railway companies. The line was then extended to the east, in stages, reaching the East London Railway in 1884. The line was electrified in 1906, and, in 1936, after the Metropolitan Railway had been absorbed by the London Passenger Transport Board, some Hammersmith & City line trains were extended over the former District Railway line to Barking. The Hammersmith & City route was shown on the Tube map as part of the Metropolitan line until 30 July 1990, when it was redesignated as a separate line. (Full article...)
Lawrence Hill railway station is on the Severn Beach Line and Cross Country Route, serving the inner-city districts of Easton and Lawrence Hill in Bristol, England. It is 1.0 mile (1.6 km) from Bristol Temple Meads. Its three letter station code is LWH. The station has two platforms, four running lines and minimal facilities. It is managed by Great Western Railway, the seventh company to be responsible for the station and the third franchise since privatisation in 1997. They provide all train services at the station, the standard service being two trains per hour along the Severn Beach Line and an hourly service between Bristol Temple Meads and Filton Abbey Wood.
The station was opened in 1863 by the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway, with a single track and platform. The line was doubled in 1874 when the Clifton Extension Railway opened, then expanded to four tracks and platforms in 1891. There were buildings on all platforms and a goods yard to the west. Service levels reduced significantly over the second half of the twentieth century. The goods facilities were closed in 1965, staff were withdrawn in 1967 and the eastern two platforms were taken out of service by 1974. (Full article...)- New York State Route 20SY (NY 20SY) was a state highway in the vicinity of the city of Syracuse, New York, in the United States. It connected U.S. Route 20 (US 20) to downtown Syracuse via Skaneateles, Camillus, Manlius, and Cazenovia in Onondaga County and Madison County. The highway began at an intersection with US 20 and NY 321 in the village of Skaneateles and ended at a junction with US 20, NY 20N, and NY 92 near the village of Cazenovia. Most of NY 20SY overlapped another route; however, two sections of NY 20SY—one in the town of Camillus and another near the village of Fayetteville—were not concurrent with another highway.
NY 20SY was assigned in 1951, overlapping parts of the pre-existing NY 321, NY 5, NY 92, and NY 20N, a more southerly alternate route of US 20 in the Syracuse area. Both NY 20N and NY 20SY were removed in 1961. The two independent sections of NY 20SY near Camillus and Fayetteville eventually became part of NY 321 and NY 92, respectively. (Full article...) 
View of northbound platform
The 75th Avenue station (originally 75th Avenue–Puritan Avenue station) is a local station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 75th Avenue and Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills, Queens, it is served by the F train at all times, the E train at all times except weekday rush hours and middays, and the <F> train during rush hours in the reverse peak direction.
The station opened on December 31, 1936 as a station along the Independent Subway System's Queens Boulevard Line. The opening of the station brought significant growth to the adjacent community of Forest Hills, transforming it from a quiet residential community to an active population center. (Full article...)
Selected picture
Photo: Drew Jacksich; edit: Bruce1eeUnion 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.- 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.
Photograph: NACAKitty Joyner (1916–1993) was an American electrical engineer with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and then the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She was hired in 1939 as the organization's first woman engineer, shortly after she had become the first woman to graduate from the University of Virginia's engineering program.
Photograph credit: Michael MainieroThe 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 credit: Lewis HineA structural worker bolts beams on the framework during the construction of the Empire State Building in New York City. The 1,250-foot (380 m) building opened on May 1, 1931, at the time the tallest building in the world, overtaking the Chrysler Building (seen to the right), which had just been completed the year before. The addition of a pinnacle and antennas later increased its overall height to 1,472 feet (449 m).
Photo credit: Eric PierceThe 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.
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.
Photograph: National Photo Company, Restoration: Adam CuerdenThe 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.
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.
Photograph: David IliffAn 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.
Photo credit: Christian KuhnaThe rotor of a modern steam turbine , which converts steam (heat) energy into kinetic (mechanical) energy. The steam path is from the smallest blade, expanding through progressively larger blade elements. Steam turbines are used in power plants to extract mechanical work from pressurized steam and benefit from their high efficiency and high power-to-weight ratio compared to other technologies, leading to their widespread deployment from electricity generation to marine propulsion.
Image credit: Søren Peo PedersenTwo 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.
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.
Credit: Berthold WernerA 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.
Credit: Mike McGregorThe OLPC XO-1 is an inexpensive subnotebook laptop computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries.
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.
Photograph: Peter TrimmingThe Mark IV tank was introduced by the British in May 1917 to fight in World War I. The "female" version, as pictured here, was armed with five machine guns. Production of the Mark IV ceased at the end of the War in 1918. A small number served briefly with other combatants afterwards.
This Mark IV tank, on display in Ashford, Kent, was presented to the town after the end of World War I. The engine was removed to install an electricity substation inside it, though this substation was subsequently removed; the tank's interior is now empty.- 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.
Photo credit: Fir0002The 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.
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General images -
The following are images from various technology-related articles on Wikipedia.
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 (from History of technology)
'BUILD YOUR OWN TELEVISION RECEIVER.' Science and Invention magazine cover, November 1928 (from Invention)
The preserved Rocket (from History of technology)
3D printer (from Emerging technologies)
Alessandro Volta with the first electrical battery. Volta is recognized as an influential inventor. (from Invention)
NASA Fuel cell stack
Direct-methanol cell. (from Emerging technologies)
Top 30 AI patent applicants in 2016 (from Emerging technologies)
A water-powered mine hoist used for raising ore, ca. 1556 (from History of technology)
Eric M. C. Tigerstedt (1887–1925) was known as a pioneer of sound-on-film technology. Tigerstedt in 1915. (from Invention)
Design for a flying machine (c.1488) by da Vinci (from History of technology)
Pont du Gard in France, a Roman aqueduct (from History of technology)
An axehead made of iron, dating from the Swedish Iron Age (from History of technology)
Dome of Florence Cathedral (from History of technology)
Ford assembly line, 1913. The magneto assembly line was the first. (from History of technology)
A late Bronze Age sword or dagger blade (from History of technology)
Agriculture preceded writing in the history of technology. (from History of technology)
Clock from Salisbury Cathedral, ca. 1386 (from History of technology)
A variety of stone tools (from History of technology)
The compartmented water wheel, here its overshot version (from History of technology)
Self-replicating 3D printer (from Emerging technologies)
Newcomen steam engine for pumping mines (from History of technology)
A 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)
Walls at Sacsayhuaman (from History of technology)
The Mars Exploration Rovers provided huge amounts of information by functioning well beyond NASA's original lifespan estimates. (from History of technology)
Artificial intelligence (from Emerging technologies)
Edison electric light bulbs 1879–80 (from History of technology)
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that Pamela McCorduck, who chronicled the evolution of artificial intelligence, regretted not recognizing the technology's potential for misuse?
- ... that Małgorzata Kalinowska-Iszkowska was awarded a Polish Gold Cross of Merit for her work in information technology?
- ... that Peter Corby's electric trouser press used technology designed for Concorde?
- ... 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 technology executive Scott A. McGregor was the lead developer of Windows 1.0?
- ... that Carlisle & Finch used carbon-arc technology in both toy trains and military searchlights?
- ... that when Chorus Systèmes SA was founded in 1986, French technology start-up companies were rare?
- ... that in 1948 and 1952, nuclear physicist Leslie Shepherd published scientific papers on the use of nuclear technology for interplanetary and interstellar space travel?
Top 10 WikiProject Technology popular articles of the month
The emblem to represent ChatGPT
ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched in November 2022. It is built on top of OpenAI's GPT-3 family of large language models and has been fine-tuned (an approach to transfer learning) using both supervised and reinforcement learning techniques. (Full article...)
Logo used since 2017
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most visited website, after Google Search. YouTube has more than 2.5 billion monthly users who collectively watch more than one billion hours of videos each day. , videos were being uploaded at a rate of more than 500 hours of content per minute. (Full article...)
Musk in 2022
Elon Reeve Musk FRS (/ˈiːlɒn/ EE-lon; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI; and president of the philanthropic Musk Foundation. With an estimated net worth of around $196 billion as of February 15, 2023, primarily from his ownership stakes in Tesla and SpaceX, Musk is the second-wealthiest person in the world, according to both the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes's real-time billionaires list. (Full article...)
The Google logo used since 2015
Google LLC (/ˈɡuːɡəl/ (
listen)) is an American multinational technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. It has been referred to as "the most powerful company in the world" and one of the world's most valuable brands due to its market dominance, data collection, and technological advantages in the area of artificial intelligence. Its parent company Alphabet is considered one of the Big Five American information technology companies, alongside Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft. (Full article...)- Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, its name comes from the face book directories often given to American university students. Membership was initially limited to Harvard students, gradually expanding to other North American universities and, since 2006, anyone over 13 years old. As of July 2022, Facebook claimed 2.93 billion monthly active users, and ranked third worldwide among the most visited websites as of July 2022. It was the most downloaded mobile app of the 2010s. (Full article...)
WhatsApp (also called WhatsApp Messenger) is an internationally available freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by US tech conglomerate Meta. It allows users to send text and voice messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other content. WhatsApp's client application runs on mobile devices, and can be accessed from computers. The service requires a cellular mobile telephone number to sign up. In January 2018, WhatsApp released a standalone business app called WhatsApp Business which can communicate with the standard WhatsApp client. (Full article...)
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for servers, and Windows IoT for embedded systems. Defunct Windows families include Windows 9x, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phone. (Full article...)
Logo used since 2015
Netflix, Inc. is an American media company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it operates the over-the-top subscription video on-demand service Netflix brand, which includes original films and television series commissioned or acquired by the company, and third-party content licensed from other distributors. Netflix is a member of the Motion Picture Association—having become the first streaming company to become a member. (Full article...)- YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service offered by the video platform YouTube. The service provides ad-free access to content across the service, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals programming produced in collaboration with the site's creators, downloading videos and background playback of videos on mobile devices, and access to the YouTube Music music streaming service. (Full article...)
Amazon.com, Inc. (/ˈæməzɒn/ AM-ə-zon) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world", and is one of the world's most valuable brands. It is one of the Big Five American information technology companies, alongside Alphabet (Google), Apple, Meta (Facebook), and Microsoft. (Full article...)
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- February 1, 2023 – Western Australian radioactive capsule incident
- A search team from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation and WA Fire and Emergency Services announces that they have found the missing caesium-137 capsule around 74 km (46 mi) south of Newman. (ABC News Australia)
- 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)
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