Leonardo da Vinci designed a mechanical drum that used rotating pegs to strike a drum automatically.
The device was a programmable percussion instrument: pegs placed around a rotating cylinder or wheel controlled when levers moved and struck the drum. By changing the peg arrangement, an operator could alter the rhythm. The machine was intended to be moved by hand or by a mechanical drive rather than played directly by a musician.
This design is sometimes grouped with Leonardo’s automata because it performs a programmed action without continuous human playing. It should not be confused with a barrel organ, which uses a rotating pinned cylinder to control pipes and produce different pitches.
Leonardo’s mechanical music studies show how pins, cams, levers, and rotating shafts could encode a sequence of actions. Similar principles later appeared in music boxes, player instruments, and automated machinery.