He invented 1/1000 of a second shutter, and the electrotachyscope in 1887. The electrotachyscope was a disk of 24 glass diapositives, manually powered, and illuminated by a sparking spiral Geissler tube, used by a single viewer, or projected to a small group.

In 1887 Anschütz developed the Projecting Electrotachyscope, in 1891 a slightly smaller, powered version, the "Electrotachyscope" (electrical Schnellseher), was being manufactured by Siemens & Halske in Berlin, used in a public arcade and was displayed at the International Electrotechnical Exhibition in Frankfurt. Nearly 34,000 people paid to see it at the Berlin Exhibition Park in summer 1892 also Strand, London and at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

His 1884 albumen photography of storks inspired aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal's experimental gliders in the late 1880s.