Leonardo da Vinci sketched an organ gun with multiple small barrels arranged on a rotating platform.
The weapon placed rows of gun barrels on a frame that could be elevated and turned. Firing several barrels in sequence or together was intended to increase the rate of fire compared with a single muzzle-loading cannon. The name “organ gun” comes from the visual resemblance between its parallel barrels and the pipes of a musical organ.
Leonardo's drawing belongs to his broader study of military technology in the late fifteenth century. His proposal was not a modern machine gun: it lacked automatic loading, metallic cartridges, and a continuous firing mechanism.
Organ guns existed in various forms before and after Leonardo. His version is important because it shows his attempt to combine concentrated firepower with a carriage that could be aimed and repositioned. There is no firm evidence that this exact design entered service.