Heyl, a native of Columbus, Ohio, who designed many types of machinery, including boxes and paper and book stitching devices, has been hailed by some as the first to use photos in a projection device. He himself, however, never claimed that honor. He published a letter dated Philadelphia, February 1, 1898, in the _Journal_ of the Franklin Institute, “A contribution to the history of the art of photographing living subjects in motion and reproducing the natural movements by the lantern.” “Among the earliest public exhibitions” of such a combination was one given by him at an entertainment held in the Academy of Music, in Philadelphia on February 5, 1870. A catalogue note announced as a feature of the varied entertainment the showing of “The Phasmatrope, a most recent scientific invention,” whose effects are similar “to the familiar toy called the Zoetrope.” The management expressed pleasure at having “the first opportunity of presenting its merits to our audience.” Heyl and a dancing partner posed for six pictures in the various phases of the waltz at O. H. Willard’s photographic studio at 1206 Chestnut Street. Other photo slides were made of a then popular Japanese acrobatic performer--“Little All Right.” The time exposures were taken on wet plates, then prints were transferred to thin glass plates with the images only about three quarters of an inch high. The six stills were duplicated three times to fill the eighteen spaces in the wheel of the projector. The Heyl projector had an intermittent movement controlled by a ratchet and pawl mechanism operated by a reciprocating bar moved up and down by the hand. The fast movement was used for the acrobats with a complete stop at the end of each somersault, and a slow tempo for the waltz which was accompanied by an orchestra. The problem of a shutter to interrupt the light while the pictures were moving was solved in the following way, according to Heyl: “This was accomplished by a vibrating shutter placed back of the picture wheel that was operated on the same drawbar that moved the wheel, only the shutter movement was so timed that it moved first and covered the picture before the latter moved and completed the movement after the next picture was in place. This movement reduced to a great extent the flickering and gave very natural and life-like representations of the moving figures.” Heyl’s Phasmatrope was an ingenious apparatus but the imagination had to compensate for its many imperfections. When it was demonstrated on March 16, 1870, at a meeting of the Franklin Institute, it created so little notice that mention of the showing was not included in the minutes. It is interesting to note it was at this meeting that Sellers was elected head of the Franklin Institute. We can wonder what his reaction was to the fact that Heyl, a man fifteen years his junior, had added projection to the principle of his Kinematoscope which had also used “posed pictures” in a peep-show apparatus.