Leonardo da Vinci designed a 33-barrel organ with multiple barrels arranged in three rows.
The device is a type of organ gun, a weapon that mounts many small firearm barrels together. Leonardo’s design placed 33 barrels in three groups of 11. The carriage could be repositioned so that one group fired while another was loaded, theoretically allowing a more continuous sequence of shots than a single muzzle-loading gun.
The name refers to the visual arrangement of the barrels, which resembles the pipes of a musical organ. It was not a machine gun in the modern sense: each barrel still required loading, and the weapon depended on the firearms technology of the Renaissance.
Leonardo’s version was never known to have been used in battle. Its practical value would have been limited by reloading time, ammunition handling, and the recoil of many barrels. Nevertheless, the design shows his interest in improving artillery through repetition, organization, and mechanical movement.