420 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
Fire-arms having many barrels, intended either to be fired together 
or in rapid succession, are by no means a modern conception; although 
the introduction of rifling and metallic cartridges has of course revo¬ 
lutionised their nature and manufacture. 
In the earliest days of artillery, we find machines used under the 
names of ribaudequins, orgues,* * * § orgels, organ or tube guns, &c., in 
which several barrels of small calibre were united in a single mass, 
or on a rigid framework. 
For the protection of fortresses, such guns were employed in Flanders 
in 1347 ; four breech-loading tubes of small calibre being placed on a 
two-wheeled cart, with their muzzles protruding through a wooden 
screen, protected by a chevaux-de-frise. *j* 
Andrea Cattaro mentions a machine used in Italy in the 14th century J 
(against the people of Carrara), which consisted of a carriage having 
144 small bombards ( bombardelles ) ranged in rows of 12, three of which 
rows could be fired at once, and so 36 balls (about the size of an egg) 
discharged at a time. The carriage was drawn by four horses, and 
three men were sufficient for loading and firing the 144 bombardelles. 
At the battle of Tongres, again, in the year 1408, a number of 
ribaudequins, or tube guns, were used, but apparently with little 
effect; and three years later we find that the Duke of Burgundy’s 
army of 40,000 men had 2000 organ guns, besides cannon.§ 
These weapons were originally of clumsy construction, and could 
not be discharged with rapidity. Towards the end of the 15th cen¬ 
tury, however, more efficient organ guns were taken into the field,” || 
but wheeled carriages, strong enough to resist the recoil of a field 
piece, and yet fairly mobile, were constructed about this period; so that 
Francis I., when invading Italy in 1515, though he carried organ guns 
with him, also took a number of field pieces. As the latter improved 
in mobility, the use of tube guns was gradually given up, and after the 
16th century their employment in war seems to have been exceptional. 
Ufano, indeed, writing in 1621,^[ gives a drawing of a four-tubed gun 
mounted on a field carriage as a weapon then in use, and we find 
similar machine guns employed by the Scotch in 1644, during our 
civil war. At the battle of Copredy Bridge, fought in that year, the 
Cavaliers captured “ two barricadoes of wood, which were drawn upon 
* M. Remi (“ Memoires de l’Artillerie,”) defines an orgue as “ a machine composed of several 
musquet barrels fastened together, and used for the defence of breaches and entrenchments, on 
account of the possibility of firing from them several shots at once.” 
f Citadella’s description quoted by Chesney (“Observations on Fire-arms,” p. 57). Models of 
such guns may be seen at the R.M. Repository, Woolwich. 
J “Ancient Cannon in Europe,” by Captain H. Brackenbury. (“Proceedings R.A. Institution,” 
Yol. V., p. 33). 
§ “Etudes sur l’avenir de l’Artillerie,” by the Emperor Napoleon III. 
j| Specimens of such weapons exist in Germany— e.g., Weigel, describing in 1698 the contents of 
the arsenal at Nuremburg, mentions tube guns with 33 barrels, termed “ Todten-orgels,” on account 
of their deadly effect.—“Ancient Cannon in Europe,” by Captain H. Brackenbury, R.A., 
(“Proceedings R.A. Institution,” Vol. V., p. 29). 
“ Artillerie,” par Diego Ufano. Zutphen, 1621. Plate /3, opp. Chap, xxiii. 
