Leonardo da Vinci designed an organ gun with 33 barrels arranged in three rows.
The weapon used multiple small cannon barrels mounted on a frame. The rows could be loaded together, allowing a volley of shots rather than a single discharge. The name “organ gun” comes from the resemblance of the grouped barrels to the pipes of a musical organ.
Leonardo’s drawing is often described as a 33-barrel organ gun. The arrangement was intended to improve the rate of fire in comparison with ordinary single-barrel artillery, although each barrel still had to be prepared and reloaded. A wheeled carriage could help crews reposition the weapon.
The design belongs to Leonardo’s broader study of military engineering, which included fortifications, bridges, and siege machines. It was not a machine gun in the modern sense: it had no automatic loading, cartridge ammunition, or continuous firing mechanism. The drawing shows an ambitious Renaissance attempt to concentrate several artillery pieces into one coordinated weapon.