The intended target was Louis Phillipe of France. It fired once. Out of 25 barrels four misfired, four barrels exploded, and the would be assassin forgot to load one, and it still fired enough projectiles to kill 18 people, wound 18 people, wound 4 people more so badly they lost limbs, and also hurt the assailant himself from the exploding barrels. The king got a light scratch.
The builder of this infernal machine, Giuseppe Marco Fieschi, was given an honorary funeral service by the Reactive Scientific Research Institute, the developers of the Katyusha rocket system, a century after his death.
a bit too complicated to be a doohickey its really more of a contraption
No it 's a couple of tubes with gunpowder wadding and metal shit in it. It’s very uncomplicated. The fact that it exploded four times being used once does heavily point towards contraption though.