Early humans using the wheel allowed for the transportation of heavy material to be faster and easier. The first wheel was found in ancient Mesopotamia, and is thought to be used as a potter’s wheel to throw clay pots. Ancient Egypt and India saw the invention of the shaduf, a hand-operated lever and fulcrum used to lift water to irrigate crops. Ancient Greek philosopher Archimedes was the first to record simple machines, including pulleys, levers, and inclined planes, all used as machines to lessen the work needed to accomplish a task. During the Industrial Revolution, mechanical principles were used in the invention of engines, which use a system of pistons to generate large amounts of force needed to move trains and power factories. In modern times, mechanical technology is employed to accomplish all sorts of engineering tasks, such as running our cars, lifting heavy objects, and transporting goods.
- Technologies include physical objects like utensils or machines, as well as intangible tools like software.
- Since the 1960s, the assumption that governments funding of basic research would lead to the discovery of marketable technologies has lost credibility.
- The International Conference of Green Technology is an annual multidisciplinary forum for promoting and fostering interactions between researchers, scientists, academia, and related industrial communities in studying the development of science and green technology.
- For treatment of the organization of technological systems, see automation; engineering; production system; systems engineering; work, history of the organization of.
This includes the use of pulleys, levers, wheels and axles, wedges, inclined planes, and even cogs and gears. Mechanical technology is used for any task that involves doing mechanical work, which is primarily the motion of objects. Any machine, generator, or tool used to do work uses mechanical technology. Because current technologies are generally accepted as good, future technological developments are not considered circumspectly, resulting in what seems to be a blind acceptance of technological development.
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As the Paleolithic era progressed, dwellings became more sophisticated and more elaborate; as early as 380,000 B.C.E., humans were constructing temporary wood huts. Clothing, adapted from the fur and hides of hunted animals, helped humanity expand into colder regions; humans began to migrate out of Africa by 200,000 B.C.E. and into other continents, such as Eurasia. The discovery and utilization of fire, a simple energy source with many profound uses, was a turning point in the technological evolution of humankind. To make a stone tool, a “core” of hard stone with specific flaking properties was struck with a hammerstone. This flaking produced a sharp edge on the core stone as well as on the flakes, either of which could be used as tools, primarily in the form of choppers or scrapers.
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Technology can be most broadly defined as the entities, both material and immaterial, created by the application of mental and physical effort in order to achieve some value. In this usage, technology refers to tools and machines that may be used to solve real-world problems. It is a far-reaching term that may include simple tools, such as a crowbar or wooden spoon, or more complex machines, such as a space station or particle accelerator.
The eleventh and final ancient Roman aqueduct was built in 226 CE. Put together, the Roman aqueducts extended over 450 km, but less than 70 km of this was above ground and supported by arches. A bathtub virtually identical to modern ones was unearthed at the Palace of Knossos. Several Minoan private homes also had toilets, which could be flushed by pouring water down the drain. The ancient Romans had many public flush toilets, which emptied into an extensive sewage system. The primary sewer in Rome was the Cloaca Maxima; construction began on it in the sixth century BCE and it is still in use today.