In Cycling magazine's 1907 article "Multi-Speed Gearing', they describe/test three two-speed cranksets and one three-speed crankset.

In the 1890s there were many attempts to put multiple gears on bikes (or as most of the patents say, 'velocipedes') that involved the bottom bracket and/or crankset. By the time of the Great War, most of these had disappeared from the marketplace, although as Italuminium said, similar designs pop up again from decade to decade.