Archimedes' screw the screw and casing could be cast together as a single piece in bronze. The design of the everyday Greek and Roman water screw, in contrast to the heavy bronze device of Sennacherib, with its problematic drive chains, has a powerful simplicity. A double or triple helix was built of wood strips (or occasionally bronze sheeting) around a heavy wooden pole. A cylinder was built around the helices using long, narrow boards fastened to their periphery and waterproofed with pitch. The screw was used predominately for the transport of water to irrigation systems and for dewatering mines or other low-lying
Tochmaland, Kollum containing an electrically driven Archimedes' screw was erected next to the mill. A proposal to demolish the mill was rejected by the mayor of the gemeente Kollumerland en Nieuwkruisland. 0n 30 December 1948, the mill was purchased by the gemeente. Restorations were undertaken in 1949, 1963 and 1983. since 1995, an electric motor has been installed in "Tochmaland" to drive its Archimedes' screw, and the installation in the brick shed demolished. "Tochmaland" is what the Dutch describe as an "Grondzeiler". It is a two-storey smock mill on a single-storey base. There is no stage, the sails reaching down almost to