Leonardo da Vinci designed an organ gun with a row of barrels firing in sequence.
The weapon is shown in Leonardo’s military-engineering drawings as a carriage carrying multiple small cannon barrels. The name comes from the visual resemblance to the pipes of a musical organ. Depending on the design, the barrels could be arranged in one or more rows and fired together or successively.
Leonardo’s purpose was to increase the rate of fire compared with a single muzzle-loading gun. While one group of barrels was being loaded, another might be used, creating a limited form of volley fire. The system still faced the same problems as other gunpowder weapons of the period, including slow reloading, smoke, weight, and difficult battlefield handling.
This design should not be confused with a modern machine gun. It used separate gun barrels and black-powder charges rather than a continuous ammunition feed. Leonardo’s drawings show inventive attempts to improve artillery before industrial manufacturing made rapid-fire weapons practical.