What rotating machine did Leonardo da Vinci design to pump water?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a centrifugal pump to move water using rotating motion.

His notebooks contain studies of pumps and water-lifting machines, including arrangements in which a rotating mechanism drives water outward. This principle is central to centrifugal pumps: an impeller adds velocity to the liquid, and the pump casing converts much of that motion into pressure.

Leonardo’s water machines belonged to a long tradition of hydraulic engineering. Renaissance designers sought practical ways to drain land, supply fountains, operate workshops, and raise water for irrigation. Leonardo observed vortices, flowing streams, and the behavior of water, then applied those observations to mechanical devices.

Modern centrifugal pumps are widely used in municipal water systems, industry, agriculture, and heating equipment. Leonardo’s sketches should not be treated as identical to a modern standardized pump, but they are important evidence of his early study of rotating hydraulic machinery.