What Leonardo da Vinci machine used water power to operate a saw?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a hydraulic saw that used water power to operate the cutting mechanism.

The machine formed part of his extensive studies of mills, gears, channels, and industrial production. Flowing water would drive a wheel, whose rotation could be converted through mechanical linkages into the repeated motion needed to move a saw. Such a system could reduce manual labor in cutting timber or other materials.

Leonardo’s notebooks contain many machine designs that combine familiar power sources with new arrangements of gears and linkages. The hydraulic saw is therefore best viewed as an engineering concept recorded in his manuscripts, not as a surviving factory installation. Water-powered sawmills existed before Leonardo, but his drawings show his characteristic interest in automating repetitive work.