Leonardo da Vinci designed a screw pump using the Archimedes screw principle. In this type of device, a helical surface inside a tube or cylinder carries water upward as the screw rotates.
Leonardo studied water-lifting machinery in detail, drawing screws, wheels, channels, and pumps for irrigation, drainage, fountains, and construction. The mechanism was especially useful for moving water continuously rather than lifting it one container at a time. His notebooks show both practical hydraulic studies and imaginative variations on established machines.
The underlying principle was not Leonardo’s invention. Ancient sources credit Archimedes with the screw associated with water lifting, although the exact history of the device is debated. Leonardo’s importance was his careful observation, redesign, and mechanical analysis during the Renaissance. A screw pump is also not the same as a water wheel: a wheel extracts energy from flowing water, while a pump uses mechanical energy to move water to a higher level.