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
Archimedes the puzzle than had been found in previous texts. The palimpsest is now stored at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, where it has been subjected to a range of modern tests including the use of ultraviolet and light to read the overwritten text. The treatises in the Archimedes Palimpsest are: a. In the preface to "On Spirals" addressed to Dositheus of Pelusium, Archimedes says that "many years have elapsed since Conon's death." Conon of Samos lived , suggesting that Archimedes may have been an older man when writing some of his works. b. The treatises by Archimedes known