What rotating device did Leonardo da Vinci design to pump water from canals?

Leonardo da Vinci designed versions of Archimedes’ screw to pump water from canals.

An Archimedes’ screw is a helical surface wrapped around a central shaft inside a tube or trough. When the screw turns, water is carried upward along the spiral. Leonardo studied and drew screw-based lifting machines as part of his extensive work on hydraulics, waterways, and canal engineering.

The basic principle was not Leonardo’s invention. Ancient sources associate it with Archimedes of Syracuse, who lived in the third century BCE. Leonardo’s contribution was to examine, adapt, and illustrate mechanical forms of the device for Renaissance engineering problems.

This distinction matters because Leonardo is often credited with inventing every machine he drew. His notebooks also preserve studies of existing technologies, proposed improvements, and ideas that were never built. The water screw remained useful for irrigation, drainage, and moving liquids.