4. The Archimedes screw, a simple and elegant way to lift water
Dropping a bucket in a well and hauling it up was the simple way of lifting and elevating water, and one or two ancient technologies helped here and there, but it was the advent of the Archimedes screw that truly revolutionized the business of moving water. The Greek mathematician Archimedes, whose name is attributed to the invention, was in fact not the inventor, but just the note taker. The technology was already in use in Egypt in the third century BCE when Archimedes first recorded it, and it remains in common use today.
The idea is elegantly simple, a rotating screw contained in a tubular housing will raise any liquid or granular substance if the rotation is steady and reasonably fast. The Archimedes screw is still the basis of most pump technology today, and in any grain silo, it is that Archimedes screw that keeps the wheat moving. The concept can be found in just about every industry were a commodity is moved, and it does not look like it is about to be phased out.