Leonardo da Vinci designed an organ gun with 33 small guns arranged on a rotating platform.
The weapon was intended to fire multiple barrels in succession. Its fan-shaped arrangement allowed a broad field of fire, while the platform could be repositioned or rotated. Leonardo’s design was part of his studies of artillery and military machines during the late fifteenth century.
The name organ gun refers to the visual resemblance between the parallel barrels and the pipes of a musical organ. It does not mean that the weapon used musical mechanisms. The design is also sometimes described as a multiple-barrel cannon or volley gun, but “organ gun” is the standard short name associated with Leonardo’s version.
As with many of Leonardo’s military inventions, the surviving drawing is evidence of a proposal rather than proof of successful battlefield use. The machine shows how he explored concentrated firepower before modern rapid-fire weapons existed.