Leonardo da Vinci sketched an organ gun with multiple barrels arranged in rows.
An organ gun, also called a ribauldequin, is a volley weapon made from several small gun barrels mounted together. Leonardo’s design placed many barrels on a wheeled frame, allowing a crew to aim the assembly and fire a concentrated salvo. The name comes from the resemblance between the parallel barrels and the pipes of a musical organ.
The concept addressed a practical problem in early gunpowder warfare: individual hand-held guns were slow to reload. Firing several barrels together could increase short-range firepower, although it also created problems involving weight, recoil, ammunition supply, and reloading time.
Leonardo was not the first person to imagine a multi-barrel gun. Similar weapons existed in Europe before his sketches. His drawing is significant because it shows how he applied mechanical organization and battlefield observation to an established weapons category.