What Leonardo da Vinci device was intended to lift water using a screw?

The screw-based water-lifting device studied and redesigned by Leonardo da Vinci was Archimedes’ screw.

Leonardo examined water-lifting machinery and produced drawings of helical screws that could move water upward as the screw rotated. The device is traditionally associated with Archimedes, who is said to have used or developed a water screw in antiquity. Leonardo’s work therefore represents study and mechanical refinement of an established principle, not the invention of the screw itself.

A screw pump works because water becomes trapped between the spiral blade and its surrounding tube or trough. Rotation carries that water upward, making the machine useful for drainage, irrigation, and other hydraulic tasks. Its operation is different from a water wheel, which extracts energy from flowing water rather than directly lifting it.

Leonardo’s hydraulic studies also included canals, locks, pumps, and methods for controlling water. The Archimedes’ screw belongs to that wider body of Renaissance engineering, where ancient devices were revisited with detailed observation and drawings.