Leonardo da Vinci designed an organ gun, a multi-barreled weapon intended for rapid fire.
The design arranged many small cannon barrels in rows or a fan-shaped formation. The name comes from its visual resemblance to the pipes of a musical organ. A carriage could support the barrels and help aim the weapon, while different groups could be fired in sequence.
Leonardo’s organ gun was a proposal, not a battlefield weapon known to have been manufactured and used by him. Multiple barrels offered a way to fire repeatedly without waiting to reload a single barrel, although the system would still require powder, shot, and preparation.
The design is sometimes loosely called a machine gun, but that modern term can be misleading. Leonardo’s weapon used separate gun barrels and did not have the self-loading mechanism associated with modern automatic firearms.