Archimedes’ Screw

The Archimedes’ screw is one of the earliest hydraulic machines. Archimedes’s screws were used as water pumps to lift water from low lying water body to higher area using a screw shaped structure inside a pipe.

_{Image attribution - Zdravko Pečar/ CC BY-SA 4.0}

Reverse action

Instead of turning the screw to pull water from the bottom, if we feed water from the top it would spin the screw. This concept is used in hydroelectric power generation

Other uses

Modern archimedes screws have replaced windmills to drain water from low lying areas. The concept has found other interesting applications such as in the combine harvester.

_{Image attribution - MarkusHagenlocher/ CC BY-SA 3.0}