Leonardo da Vinci sketched a water screw as a machine for lifting water between levels.
A water screw uses a helical surface inside a tube or around a central shaft. As the screw turns, water is carried upward. Leonardo studied and drew screw-based mechanisms in his notebooks, applying the principle to hydraulic work and mechanical design.
The underlying device was not Leonardo’s invention. The Archimedes’ screw is traditionally associated with the Greek mathematician and engineer Archimedes, who lived in the third century BCE. Leonardo’s contribution was to investigate, depict, and adapt mechanical principles that had been known for centuries. This distinction is important because many “Leonardo inventions” were original designs based on older technologies.