Leonardo da Vinci designed water-wheel machinery to use flowing water as a source of mechanical power.
Water wheels were already established before Leonardo, but he studied their shapes, paddles, gearing, and applications in detail. His notebooks show how water could turn a wheel and then drive other equipment through shafts and gears. Such systems could power mills, pumps, hammers, and other industrial processes.
Leonardo’s drawings often explore how to improve efficiency by directing water onto the wheel at useful angles. The exact purpose of an individual sketch can vary, so not every water-powered drawing should be treated as a single finished invention.
A water wheel is not a turbine in the modern sense, although both extract energy from moving water. Traditional wheels use visible paddles or buckets, while turbines use enclosed flowing water and shaped blades. Leonardo’s studies belong mainly to the wheel-and-gear tradition.