Screw turbine connected to a generator through a gearbox. The Archimedean screw is an ancient invention, attributed to Archimedes of Syracuse (287–212 BC.), and commonly used to raise water from a watercourse for irrigation purposes. In 1819 the French engineer Claude Louis Marie Henri Navier (1785–1836) suggested using the Archimedean screw as a type of water wheel. In 1916 William Moerscher applied for a U.S. patent on the hydrodynamic screw turbine. The Archimedean screw turbine is applied on rivers with a relatively low head (from 1 m to 10 m) and on low flows (0.01 m³/s up to around 10 m³/s on
SS Archimedes the Archimedes' screw, named after Archimedes of Syracuse who lived in the 3rd Century BC. It was not until the 18th century however, and the invention of the steam engine, that a practical means of delivering effective power to a marine screw propulsion system became available, but initial attempts to build such a vessel met with failure. In 1807, the world's first commercially successful steam-powered vessel, Robert Fulton's "North River Steamboat", made its debut. As this vessel was powered by paddlewheels rather than a propeller, the paddlewheel thereby became the "de facto" early standard for steamship propulsion. Experimentation with screw