Leonardo da Vinci designed a water screw mechanism to raise water from a lower level to a higher one.
His notebooks contain studies of screw-shaped devices that could move water through a rotating spiral enclosed in a tube or trough. The rotating surface carries water upward, making the mechanism useful for drainage, irrigation, and other hydraulic work.
The underlying principle was not invented by Leonardo. The water screw is traditionally associated with Archimedes, who is said to have developed or improved it in antiquity. Leonardo’s contribution was to study, draw, and adapt the mechanism within his broader investigations of pumps and water management.
A water screw should not be confused with a water wheel. A water wheel extracts energy from moving water, whereas a screw pump uses mechanical rotation to lift water. That distinction makes the device a pump rather than a power wheel.