Leonardo da Vinci designed an organ gun, a multi-barrel weapon with many small guns arranged in rows.
The design is commonly described as a large carriage carrying multiple light guns. Its name comes from the resemblance between the parallel gun barrels and the pipes of a musical organ. The arrangement was intended to let a crew fire a broad volley rather than rely on one slow-loading cannon.
Leonardo’s military sketches explored ways to increase the rate and concentration of fire. The organ gun was therefore a battlefield concept, not a musical instrument. Its practical use would still have been limited by loading time, ammunition handling, recoil, and the difficulty of aiming a large group of barrels.
This weapon is distinct from the armored vehicle often called Leonardo’s tank. The tank design used a protective conical shell and guns, while the organ gun’s defining feature was its repeated array of smaller barrels.