What automatic drum machine did Leonardo da Vinci design to create repeated musical rhythms?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a mechanical drum that could create repeated rhythms automatically.

The device used a rotating cylinder fitted with pegs. As the cylinder turned, the pegs struck or activated drum mechanisms in a planned sequence, allowing the machine to perform a programmed rhythm without a human drummer continuously playing it.

This idea belongs to Leonardo’s wider investigations of automation, mechanical motion, and musical instruments. Renaissance courts valued elaborate mechanical spectacles, so an automatically sounding instrument could serve both entertainment and technical display.

The drum is sometimes grouped with Leonardo’s automata, including his humanoid robot and self-propelled cart. It is not the same as a modern music box, which usually uses a tuned metal comb. Leonardo’s mechanism produced percussion through timed mechanical impacts rather than through a comb of metal notes.