"connections"  by science historian James Burke, not heavy or overly scientific. 

It is the book that goes with an old television series. among other things it explains that the microchip can be traced back to the first ideas here on earth in the late 16th century / early 17th century, like wise with genetics it began with a monk a long time ago. 

Nothing to date has ever come from alien visitors. Man did not discover a crashed space craft and then put that technogolgy into modern computers, or stealth fighter planes.

There are some books of this type (I think) in English.  I don't know if the suggestions below will fall into the category that you are looking for ...  A lot of this (and other) content of course is available on the web, including decent articles at https://www.britannica.com/

The History of the World in 100 Objects was an exhibition, radio series and book put together by the British Museum and the BBC, and the radio shows are still available as podcasts. It takes a broad view of "technology" - I think to good effect - and some of the items were very interesting, to me anyway :) 

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/180/180195/a-history-of-the-world-in-100-objects/9780241951774.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nrtd2/episodes/downloads

I have heard recommendations for (but have never seen) 1001 Inventions: That Changed the World, which is reported to have much shorter, single page items on many objects.

This page might show you some titles of interest : https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/inventions/page/1#p_9007897

This one might be good ... A Short History of Technology: From the Earliest Times to A.D. 1900 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Short-History-Technology-Earliest-D/dp/0486274721

With a wider "science" approach, there's Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankindhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapiens:_A_Brief_History_of_Humankind

and Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Nearly_Everything

Hi, Olga,

Here are a few recommendations. I read more history, but these have a more science or technology thrust.

I have enjoyed the books by Simon Winchester.  His latest is 2018 –  The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World.  He's written about the beginnings of modern geology, the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, natural phenomena and man's interactions, etc.

 I also like Dava Sobels' writing.  See Longitude, A More Perfect Heaven (Copernicus) and Galileo's Daughter. I'd say she writes about the people behind the science and technology, although not exclusively as a biographer, but as one interested in science and technology.

Ross King, Brunelleschi's Dome for architecture and "architectural technology".

Enjoy!

Martha