33-barreled Organs: Leonardo da Vinci Weapons of War & Invention

Leonardo da Vinci Weapons of War and Invention. The way Leonardo da Vinci saw it, the problem with cannons of the time was that they took far to long to load. His solution to that problem was to build multi-barreled guns that could be loaded and fired simultaneously.

This idea forms the basis of war inventions like da Vinci's 33-barreled organ, which featured 33 small-caliber guns or cannons connected together. The cannons were divided into three rows of 11 guns each, all connected to a single revolving platform. Attached to the sides of the platform were large wheels.

All guns of the organ would be loaded and then, during battle, the first row of 11 would be fired. The platform would then be rotated to properly aim the next row of cannons. The idea was that while one set of cannons was being fired, another set would be cooling, and the third set could be loaded. The system allowed soldiers to repeatedly fire without interuption (sic). The weapon is referred to as an "organ" because the rows of cannon barrels resembled the pipes of an organ. Leonardo da Vinci's design for the 33-barreled organ is generally regarded as the basis for the modern-day machine gun - a weapon that really didn't develop for commercial use until the 19th century. . This historical marker is in Chiriaco Summit in Riverside County California