Leonardo da Vinci designed water wheels that used flowing water to produce mechanical power.
His notebooks analyze water movement, wheel shapes, channels, and gearing. In a water wheel, moving or falling water pushes blades or buckets around a wheel, and the rotation can drive machinery such as mills, pumps, or other mechanisms.
Leonardo did not invent the water wheel. Water-powered wheels had been used for centuries before his lifetime. His engineering studies refined the understanding of how water could be directed and how rotational motion could be transmitted through gears.
The design should not be confused with a windmill, which extracts energy from moving air. It also predates modern hydroelectric turbines, which convert water’s energy into electricity through a more specialized rotor and generator system.