Leonardo da Vinci designed a 33-barrel organ, a multi-barrel artillery weapon intended to fire many cannonballs in succession.
The design arranged 33 small cannons in three rows of 11 on a frame. The name “organ” refers to the visual arrangement of the barrels, which resembles the pipes of a musical instrument. The rows could be fired in sequence, helping artillery crews maintain a continuing barrage while another row was prepared.
This was not a modern machine gun. Each barrel was still a separate cannon, and the weapon depended on black powder, manual loading, and the limitations of Renaissance artillery. Its proposed advantage was speed and concentrated fire rather than fully automatic operation.
Leonardo’s drawing reflects his interest in military systems that combined many simple units into one coordinated device. As with several of his battlefield inventions, historians have no evidence that this exact design entered regular service.