What machine did Leonardo da Vinci design to lift water using a screw-shaped mechanism?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a water-lifting machine based on Archimedes’ screw.

The Archimedes’ screw is an inclined rotating device with a helical surface inside a tube or trough. As it turns, the helix carries water upward. Leonardo studied and drew screw-based mechanisms as part of his wider investigation of machines, hydraulics, and motion. His drawings show how an ancient principle could be analyzed and adapted through Renaissance engineering.

The underlying invention was not originally Leonardo’s: ancient sources traditionally associate the screw with Archimedes of Syracuse, who lived in the third century BCE. Leonardo’s contribution was to document, study, and redesign mechanisms in his notebooks. A water screw is also different from Leonardo’s aerial screw, which was a flight concept rather than a pump.