What water-powered machine did Leonardo da Vinci design to cut wood automatically?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a hydraulic saw to cut wood automatically using water power.

His design combined a water wheel with mechanical transmission parts that moved a saw and advanced timber through the cutting process. Water supplied the continuous power, while cams, gears, and linkages converted the wheel’s rotation into the repeated motion needed for sawing.

The concept reflects Leonardo’s interest in replacing repetitive manual labor with coordinated mechanisms. Renaissance workshops already used water power for mills and other industrial tasks, but Leonardo’s drawings explored how the same energy source could be applied to a more automated sawmill.

The machine is often described as an early automated sawmill rather than as a completely new type of water wheel. The water wheel provided the power; the distinctive invention was the mechanism that linked water power to automatic cutting and feeding.