What Leonardo da Vinci invention was a screw-powered device intended to lift water?

Leonardo da Vinci’s screw-powered water-lifting design was an Archimedes’ screw.

An Archimedes’ screw consists of a helical surface inside a cylinder or around a shaft. When the screw rotates, water is carried upward along the spiral. Leonardo studied and drew versions of this ancient water-raising machine while investigating hydraulics, canals, and mechanical power.

The device was already associated with Archimedes, who is traditionally credited with its invention in the third century BCE. Leonardo therefore did not originate the basic machine. His contribution was to examine, adapt, and represent screw-based mechanisms within his broader engineering work.

This water screw is distinct from Leonardo’s aerial screw, which was a proposed flight machine. Both use a spiral form, but one moves water upward and the other was intended to generate lift from rotating air. The shared shape can lead to confusion when Leonardo’s inventions are listed without their purposes.