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 overhaul. Her engines and machinery were removed on an unspecified date at Sunderland, after which she continued in service as a sailing ship. In 1852, her sails and rigging were renewed, but she disappeared from the Register again a year or two later. She reportedly ended her career in the 1850s, in service between Chile and Australia. Although the adoption of the screw propeller was an historical inevitability given the work of John Ericsson and others, "Archimedes" considerably hastened acceptance of the technology. The Dover trials, carried out in April–May 1840, persuaded the Royal Navy to build a 900-ton steam