Leonardo da Vinci designed a chain pump that raised water with buckets or containers attached to a moving chain.
In a chain pump, a continuous loop travels through a vertical tube or shaft. Small containers catch water at the lower level and carry it upward as the chain moves. Leonardo studied this type of lifting mechanism as part of his wide-ranging work on canals, irrigation, drainage, and industrial water systems.
The chain pump is different from the Archimedes’ screw, which lifts water along a rotating helical blade inside a cylinder. Leonardo also examined waterwheels and other hydraulic machines, but those devices provide power or movement rather than using a chain of carriers as the primary lifting arrangement.
Leonardo’s drawings show that he approached water engineering practically, considering how machines could move water between different elevations. His designs were often studies or proposals, so a surviving sketch does not necessarily mean he built the machine.