In Leonardo da Vinci’s famous water-lifting design, what mechanism moves water upward?

Leonardo da Vinci’s water-lifting design moves water upward with an Archimedes screw.

An Archimedes screw consists of a helical surface inside a tube or around a shaft. When the screw turns, water trapped between the spiral and its housing rises from a lower level to a higher one. Leonardo drew screw-based lifting devices among his studies of machines and water engineering.

The underlying principle was not Leonardo’s invention. Ancient sources associate the screw with Archimedes of Syracuse, who lived in the third century BCE. Leonardo’s contribution was to study, draw, and adapt related mechanisms for Renaissance engineering. His drawings also explored pumps, canals, mills, and methods for controlling water, so the term “Leonardo’s screw” can cause confusion with the older Archimedes screw.