Bianchigirl gets partial credit.
Year: 1902. Company: Three-Speed Gear Syndicate (later known as Sturmey-Archer).
Here's a contemporary description. Note their comments about pushing the shifter from one "notch" to another to positively change between gears.
Best,
tcs
Well, not quite.
This system was patented in
1897:
It's not the first multispeed system, but it does feature a nice three position gate for the shift lever.
Last edited by Mos6502; 02-09-10 at 09:00 AM.