What Leonardo da Vinci invention used screw-like blades to pump water?

Leonardo da Vinci studied and redesigned Archimedes’ screw as a water-pumping device. The machine uses a helical surface inside a tube or cylinder to lift water when the screw rotates.

Archimedes’ screw is traditionally associated with the Greek mathematician and engineer Archimedes, who is said to have developed it in the third century BCE. Leonardo therefore did not originate the underlying invention. His contribution was to investigate, draw, and adapt screw mechanisms during the Renaissance, including designs for moving water and other materials.

The device works because rotating the helix carries water upward along the inclined channel. It can be powered by people, animals, wind, or an engine. Unlike a modern centrifugal pump, it moves water through the geometry of the rotating screw rather than by rapidly spinning a fluid-filled chamber.

Archimedes’ screws remain useful today in drainage, irrigation, wastewater treatment, and fish handling. Leonardo’s studies helped preserve and extend interest in a machine that was already ancient in his time.