Leonardo da Vinci designed cranes that used rotating drums and ropes to raise heavy loads.
His notebooks contain studies of lifting machines, including cranes with drums, gears, pulleys, and counterweights. Turning a handle rotated a drum that wound up a rope, converting human effort into the controlled vertical movement of stone or other materials. Some designs also allowed the load to move horizontally.
Leonardo did not invent the crane itself; ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and medieval builders had already used lifting devices. His contribution was the detailed analysis and refinement of mechanisms that could make lifting more efficient and controllable. His drawings are sometimes described as blueprints for modern construction cranes, but they were conceptual studies rather than evidence of a single standardized machine. The key feature is the lifting action produced by winding a rope around a drum, not the presence of a counterweight alone.