What hydraulic machine did Leonardo da Vinci design to lift water with a helical screw?

Leonardo da Vinci studied and designed versions of the water-lifting machine called Archimedes’ screw.

An Archimedes’ screw consists of a helical surface inside a tube or around a central shaft. When the screw turns, water is carried upward along the spiral. Leonardo made drawings and studies of screw-based water-lifting devices, adapting the ancient principle to his own investigations of hydraulics and machinery.

The machine is named after Archimedes, who is traditionally credited with inventing or developing the screw in the third century BCE. Leonardo therefore did not originate the basic device. His contribution was to analyze, represent, and extend hydraulic mechanisms in the Renaissance, alongside studies of canals, pumps, locks, and water flow.

Archimedes’ screws remain useful today for moving water, wastewater, grain, and other materials. They are especially effective when a large volume must be lifted through a relatively low height. Leonardo’s drawings are sometimes presented as inventions in their own right, but they are better understood as Renaissance studies and refinements of an ancient machine.