Leonardo da Vinci designed water-screw mechanisms intended to lift water from a lower level to a higher one.
His notebooks contain studies of screws, pumps, canals, and hydraulic machinery. A helical surface inside a tube can carry water upward as the screw rotates, making the device useful for drainage, irrigation, and construction work.
The underlying principle predates Leonardo and is traditionally associated with Archimedes’ screw, so Leonardo should not be credited with inventing the basic machine. His contribution was the detailed Renaissance study and adaptation of hydraulic mechanisms. A water screw is also different from a water wheel, which extracts energy from moving water rather than lifting it.