Archimedes' screw the outer casing to turn the entire apparatus as one piece, which would require that the casing be rigidly attached to the screw. Some researchers have postulated this as being the device used to irrigate the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. A cuneiform inscription of Assyrian King Sennacherib (704–681 BC) has been interpreted by Stephanie Dalley to describe casting water screws in bronze some 350 years earlier. This is consistent with classical author Strabo, who describes the Hanging Gardens as irrigated by screws. German engineer Konrad Kyeser equipped the Archimedes screw with
SS Archimedes a six-bladed "windmill" propeller designed by himself. Brunel's design was to prove a costly failure for the company. Smith and his fellow investors had originally hoped to sell "Archimedes" to the Royal Navy, but when this did not eventuate, the Ship Propeller Company sold the vessel into commercial service. The company, which is estimated to have lost a total of about £50,000 on the "Archimedes" venture, was subsequently wound up. The later career of "Archimedes" is sketchy. The ship ran aground at Beachy Head in 1840. In 1845, she disappeared from Lloyd's Register, but appeared again in 1847 following an