Leonardo da Vinci sketched an organ gun as a group of parallel gun barrels that could fire in sequence or together.
The design is associated with Leonardo’s military-engineering studies and resembles the pipes of a musical organ, which explains its name. Multiple small barrels were arranged on a frame so that a broad volley could be delivered against an approaching force.
An organ gun was not a machine gun in the modern sense. It lacked modern self-loading ammunition and relied on manual loading, ignition, and handling. Its main potential advantage was concentrating many shots in a single attack rather than providing continuous automatic fire.
Leonardo’s notebooks contain several weapons concepts, including large crossbows, mortars, and armored vehicles. Many were studies or proposals rather than documented battlefield inventions. The organ-gun idea belongs to the long history of volley weapons that preceded modern rapid-fire firearms.