Leonardo da Vinci designed an organ gun with multiple barrels arranged in parallel rows for rapid firing.
The weapon consisted of many small cannon barrels mounted on a frame. Because the barrels resembled the pipes of a musical organ, the design became known as an organ gun. Its arrangement was intended to fire a broad volley rather than rely on a single cannon.
Leonardo studied the weapon as part of his military engineering work in the late fifteenth century. A wheeled carriage could be repositioned, and the elevated frame was designed to improve the spread of fire. No evidence shows that Leonardo’s exact version entered service.
The organ gun is often confused with a modern machine gun. It had no automatic loading or continuous firing mechanism; each barrel still required separate preparation.