1700s term for "a technology"

I think they might have been called inventions

a device, contrivance, or process originated after study and experiment. _{^{Merriam Webster}}

Here's an example from THE SCOTS MAGAZINE OR GENERAL REPOSITORY OF LITERATURE, HISTORY, AND POLITICS from 1799:

AS many people entertain inaccurate ideas concerning that moſt important and intereſting invention the Teleſcope, permit me briefly to ſtate the facts ...

Perhaps the term device. It appears in a patent signed by Jefferson

Letter of Patent for a Grain Separating Device, Signed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Dec. 21, 1803. DS, 3 Pp. (1 Folio Pc.).

Probably the term mechanisation conveyed the idea of technology development at that time:

• mechanisation or mechanisation (BE) is the process of doing work with machinery.

• The Industrial Revolution started mainly with textile machinery, such as the spinning jenny (1764) and water frame (1768).

• Demand for metal parts used in textile machinery led to the invention of many machine tools in the late 1700s until the mid-1800s.

Source: www.en.wikipedia.org