Washington Post: A small town in Prince George's County near Washington D.C. that has flooded four times in the past four years has put a technology more than 2,000 years old to work in a new $6 million pumping station that residents hope will keep them dry.

The design, known as an Archimedes screw for the 3rd century B.C. Greek mathematician credited with conceiving it, employs a massive, slowly turning screw to lift a huge quantity of water up a short distance. The new station in Edmonston uses three of the screws to raise water the 20 feet necessary to get it up and out of the town and into a levee system that runs along the Anacostia River. Common nearly everywhere else in the world, this is the first Archimedes screw to be used on the east coast for flood protection.