What Leonardo da Vinci device used buckets on a chain to lift water?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a chain pump that used buckets on a continuous chain to lift water.

In a chain pump, a series of small containers or paddles travels upward through a tube or channel. As the chain turns, the containers carry water from a lower level to a higher one. Leonardo studied and illustrated this type of lifting mechanism as part of his wider investigations into hydraulics and machines.

The principle was not invented by Leonardo. Chain pumps were known in earlier civilizations, especially in China, and related lifting devices had long been used around the Mediterranean. Leonardo’s contribution was to observe, analyze, and redesign mechanisms in detailed engineering drawings.

The chain pump is sometimes confused with the Archimedes’ screw, another water-lifting device associated with ancient engineering. An Archimedes’ screw uses a rotating helical surface, while a chain pump depends on linked carriers moving through a vertical path.