Leonardo da Vinci designed an organ gun with multiple barrels arranged in rows to fire volleys.
His drawing shows a wheeled carriage carrying many small gun barrels. The arrangement was intended to let the weapon fire a concentrated volley, after which it could be reloaded. The name comes from the visual resemblance between the parallel barrels and the pipes of a musical organ.
Leonardo’s design belongs to the family of volley guns, which sought to increase firepower by grouping several barrels together. It was not a modern machine gun: the barrels did not fire continuously through an automatic loading and firing system. Instead, the weapon depended on separate charges and coordinated ignition.
The concept illustrates Leonardo’s interest in improving battlefield artillery through organization and mobility. Its practical effectiveness would still have been limited by the slow process of loading black-powder weapons during the Renaissance.