The Water Screw, ARCHIMEDES (287 - 212 B.C) Options

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ARCHIMEDES: THE WATER SCREW (287 - 212 B.C)



The discovery of the water screw (atermon cochlea), commonly ydrobida or “Archimedes screw”, it was a simple but also very important invention that contributed in the resolution of many daily and practical problems. Undeniably, inventor of this particular screw was, Archimedes many philological reports certifying it, as an example is the one of Moschion in his work “Athenaeus,Dipnosophistae” declares that in order Archimedes launch “Syrakousia” he manufactured the water screw.
“Syrakousia” was a gigantic boat that had manufactured the architect Archias from Corinthus for the tyrant of Syracuses Ierona B' (270-216 B.C). In the text of Moschion is described with details the particular boat. Unfortunately, the original text of Moschion was lost, but rescued summary of his description by the Athenian. In the Athenian¢s summary Archimedes is reported three times for three different inventions by referring the boat, between which they were also the water screw: “….The pump (that it drew impure waters from the depth of boat) although it had big length however it was operating by one man man via a cochlea, which was invented by Archimedes….”. The invention attribute in Archimedes so much Agatharchides the Knidian (180 - 116 B.C) according to Diodoros the Sikelian, as Posidonios from Apamia too, according to Stravon.
Concretely, Agatharchides the Knidian marks: “… the persons irrigate the whole region via a machine, that invented Archimedes the Syracousian, and because of its form was named cochlea (snail)”. Stravon, while he was referring in theroman mines of Spain and in the efforts that became for their desiccation, he stresses that they used for this purpose the egyptian cochleas that had been invented by Archimedes when he had visited Egypt. Other sources that certify the fatherhood of the cochlea are the reports in the manuscript of the ancient writers such as: Diodoros, Eustathios], Filon of Alexandrian, Filon of Byzantium, Stravon, Vitrouvios, Psellos
The reason (as it was mentioned before) for the invention of the screw was given to the great mathematician when he visited Egypt after having been invited by Ptolemaio B¢ the Filadelfo. In Egypt he was inspired the cochlea and manufactured it in his effort to help the villagers to draw water from Nile.
Soon enough the use of the Archimedes¢ screw expanded in whole Mediterranean even in Near East and was maintained for a lot of centuries without improvements. In certain regions of Northern Africa it continues be used up to our days, for instance in Egypt. The spread of the use of Archimedes was due to the fact that the Roman Empire, via the peace that ensured in the territories that it had conquered, facilitated the exchange of informations as precisely it happened and later with the conquest of the North-African coasts and a part of Europe from the Arabs. This explains the appearance and use of the cochlea up to Middle Ages in many regions of Europe.
The name “cochlea” is owed to the drawing, the form of the screw, that resembles with the nutshell of a snail (cochlea/êï÷ëßáò in greek language). With the name “cochlea”, it was also transported in the Latin language as coclea-cochlia, while very often was called as “elix” (coil) too. We meet this instrument in the Greek papyruses that have been saved, with different names, for example instrument (üñãáíïí), wooden instrument (îõëéêüí üñãáíïí) , kikleutirion (êõêëåõôÞñéïí), pigmata (ðÞãìáôá), valani (âÜëáíïé), kykleutis (êõêëåõôÞò), while its operators were called organistai (ïñãáíéóôáß), kykleutai (êõêëåõôáß)...

Due to the perishable materials of its manufacture it has limited in minimal the archaeological discoveries of cochlea. Nevertheless exist elements so much from representations as from modern uses that remained immutable in the pass of centuries. In a fresco of Pompei we see the representation of an egyptian cochlea that can be dated in 80 B.C approximately. This representation and the two terra-cottas of Hellenistic period (that there are, the one in the British Museum and the other in the Archaeological Museum of Cairo) show us the way in which was used the cochlea: a person supported in a horizontal beam that was between two vertical pillars moved with his legs the cochlea, that was in horizontal place. This way of use was for the transport of water from a horizontal point to another, otherwise any bent of cochlea did not allow the “by the foot” rotation of the machine.


Due to the fact that cochlea was used in almost all the Mediterranean and was maintained identical for many centuries, we find even today, this machine, to be used in its initial form in countries of North Africa and mainly in Egypt. The extensive use and spread of cochlea, that is dated by 220 B.C, it is owed mainly (as it was mentioned before) in the fact that the roman empire incorporated in its conquests almost all the Mediterranean facilitating in that way the exchange of information and knowledge. The same happened later with the arabic spread that reached up to Spain and because of which we find the cochlea to be used in many European regions until the end of Middle Ages, but also much later in 1475, when we discover desiccative windmills with Archimedean cochleas to be used in the Holy Land.


In the arabic conquest of Spain we should attribute the presence of many of the archimedean cochleas in mines of Iberian peninsula for instance in the regions Linares Posadas, Sotiel Coronada, Cordoba … For the use of cochlea in the Spanish mines, is mentioned below, a description of the machine from Diodoros the Sikelian:

. . . "at a depth they sometimes break in on rivers flowing beneath the surface whose strength they overcome by diverting their welling tributaries off to the side in channels and what is the most surprising thing of all, they draw out the water of the streams they encounter by means of what is called by men the Egyptian screw, which was invented by Archimedes of Syracuse at the time of his visit to Egypt; and by the use of such screws they carry the water in successive lifts as far as the entrance, drying up in this way the spot where they are digging and making it well suited to the furtherance of their operations. Since this machine is an exceptionally ingenious device, an enormous amount of water is thrown out, to one's astonishment, by means of a trifling amount of labour, and all the water from such rivers is brought up easily and from the depths and poured out on the surface...»


We also find this machine with certain variants for example: combined with a drawing machine it gives us the winch or we meet it to be used with the use of an additional foot-operated wheel.

Source : A.G. Drachmann, «The screw of Archimedes», 1956, vol.3, Vinci (Firenze) et Paris, 1958
J.G Landels, «Engineering in the Ancient World», London 1980
J.P Olenson «Greek and Roman Mechanical Water-Lifting Devises: The History of a Technology» University of Toronto Press 1984
Diodoros the Sikelian, Historical Library
T.A. Rickard «The Mining of the Romans in Spain», Journal of Roman Studies, 1928