What machine did Leonardo da Vinci design to lift water using a chain of buckets?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a bucket-chain pump to lift water continuously.

The machine used a linked chain carrying a succession of containers. As the chain moved, buckets descended empty, filled at a lower level, and rose to discharge water at a higher level. This principle could support irrigation, drainage, construction, or other work requiring water to be raised.

Leonardo’s engineering notebooks contain studies of pumps, chains, gears, and hydraulic systems. His interest in water was broad: he investigated canals, rivers, locks, mills, and the movement of water through channels. The bucket-chain concept fit naturally into this larger program of practical mechanics.

A bucket-chain pump is not the same as Archimedes’ screw, which raises water inside a rotating helical cylinder. Nor is it simply a water wheel; the wheel could provide power, while the chain and buckets performed the lifting. Leonardo’s contribution was a detailed mechanical design rather than evidence that he invented the general principle.