Leonardo da Vinci designed an organ gun with multiple barrels arranged so that it could fire a sequence of shots.
The weapon used a row or group of small gun barrels, giving it an appearance similar to the pipes of a musical organ. Leonardo’s military drawings explored ways to increase the rate of fire and reduce the delay between shots. Some versions included a platform intended to make the weapon easier to aim or transport.
The organ gun was a gunpowder weapon, not a machine gun in the modern sense. Its barrels still had to be loaded, and firing several shots rapidly would have created smoke, recoil, and reloading problems. The design was never a standard weapon fielded by Leonardo’s patrons.
The concept belongs to a broader tradition of volley guns. Later multi-barrel weapons pursued related goals, but modern automatic firearms rely on mechanisms that load, fire, and eject ammunition continuously.