What type of mechanism did Leonardo da Vinci design to move water between different levels?

Leonardo da Vinci studied and designed versions of the Archimedes’ screw for moving water between different levels.

An Archimedes’ screw consists of a helical surface inside a tube or around a shaft. As the screw rotates, water is carried upward along the spiral. Leonardo’s notebooks include water-lifting studies that adapt this ancient principle to Renaissance engineering problems.

The mechanism was useful for irrigation, drainage, and canal work. Its operation differs from the aerial screw associated with Leonardo’s flight studies: the water-lifting screw moves liquid through a housing, whereas the aerial design was a theoretical rotor intended to rise through air.

Leonardo did not invent the Archimedes’ screw. The device is traditionally associated with Archimedes of Syracuse, who lived more than 1,700 years before Leonardo.