Leonardo da Vinci designed a screw pump to move water between different levels. His notebooks contain studies of helical mechanisms that could lift water continuously as a rotating screw turned inside a casing.
A screw pump works by trapping water in the spaces between a spiral blade and its surrounding tube or trough. Rotation carries the water upward, making the device useful for drainage, irrigation, and canal work. Leonardo’s drawings show his interest in applying this principle to hydraulic engineering.
The underlying idea was not invented by Leonardo. The Archimedes’ screw had been described in antiquity and was already associated with lifting water. Leonardo studied, adapted, and drew mechanical forms of the principle rather than originating the basic concept.
A screw pump is different from a water wheel. A water wheel extracts energy from moving water, while a screw pump uses rotation to raise water. That distinction helps identify what Leonardo’s hydraulic mechanism was designed to do.