Leonardo da Vinci sketched an organ gun with multiple rows of barrels for rapid volleys.
The weapon arranged many small cannon barrels in a frame, resembling the pipes of a musical organ. A row could be loaded and fired together, then the frame could be shifted or rotated to bring another row into action. This arrangement aimed to increase sustained fire compared with a single muzzle-loading gun.
Leonardo’s drawings show several forms of multi-barrel artillery and are connected with his military engineering work in the late fifteenth century. The design was not a modern machine gun: it did not use automatic loading, cartridges, or continuous mechanical firing.
The term organ gun refers to the visual arrangement of its barrels, not to musical operation. Similar multi-barrel weapons appeared in different historical settings, so Leonardo should be credited with designing a notable version rather than inventing every form of volley firearm.