Leonardo da Vinci designed a screw pump based on the water-lifting principle associated with Archimedes’ screw.
A screw pump uses a helical surface inside a tube or cylinder to move water upward as the screw rotates. Leonardo studied and drew screw-based machines in his engineering notebooks, adapting the principle for practical water lifting and hydraulic work. The device is sometimes linked with proposals for drainage, irrigation and construction projects.
The underlying principle predates Leonardo by many centuries. Archimedes’ screw is traditionally associated with Archimedes of Syracuse, who lived in the third century BCE, although the exact origin of the mechanism is debated. Leonardo’s contribution was not inventing the basic screw pump from nothing; it was examining, refining and applying mechanical designs within Renaissance engineering.
A screw pump differs from a piston pump, which moves fluid through reciprocating motion and valves. It also differs from a water wheel, which extracts energy from flowing water rather than lifting it directly. Leonardo’s hydraulic sketches show how closely his inventions connected geometry, mechanics and the practical management of water.