Leonardo da Vinci designed a water-lifting machine based on Archimedes’ screw.
An Archimedes’ screw uses a helical surface inside a tube or around a cylinder. When the screw rotates, water is carried upward through the spaces formed by the helix. Leonardo studied and drew screw-based machines as part of his investigations into hydraulics, including designs for moving water and operating machinery.
The underlying principle was not Leonardo’s invention. It is traditionally associated with Archimedes of Syracuse, who lived in the third century BCE. Leonardo’s contribution was to examine, adapt, and illustrate screw mechanisms in Renaissance engineering contexts. This distinction matters because Leonardo is often credited too broadly for devices whose basic principles were known earlier. His notebooks nevertheless helped document how such mechanisms could be integrated into practical machines.