House of Technology

(also called house of scientific and technical propaganda), an institution that conducts scientific and technical propaganda and organizes the exchange of advanced production and technical knowledge among the workers, engineers, and technicians of one or more branches of industry, transportation, or construction. At the beginning of the 1970’s there were more than 100 houses of technology in the USSR.

Houses of technology organize discussions of the most important questions relating to the technical improvement of production using the most recent scientific and technical achievements. They involve scientists, engineers, technicians, and scientific workers in the development of recommendations for the introduction of progressive technology and full mechanization and automation into production. They.promote the wide dissemination of the achievements of advanced production groups and the experience of production innovators and advanced workers and provide methodological help to the engineering laboratories, engineering libraries, and bureaus of technical information at enterprises. The houses of technology organize conferences, seminars, universities of technical progress and economic knowledge, lectures, reports, consultations, and excursions to advanced enterprises. They have lecture and exhibition halls and engineering and photo laboratories. Some of them have print shops or printing and duplicating equipment. The work of the houses of technology is carried on with the aid of activists— scientists, scientific workers, engineers, technicians, and workers—who form independent scientific and technical sections. The councils for scientific and technical propaganda, which are under the auspices of the houses of technology and consist of representatives from the sections, scientific organizations, and enterprises, direct the sections and coordinate their work. The work of the houses of technology is conducted in close contact with organizations of the All-Union “Znanie” (Knowledge) Society, the centers for scientific and technical information in the republics, krais, oblasts, and cities, and the All-Union Society of Inventors and Innovators.