Timeline February 1878

Events in February 1878 5

• 1792 – 1878 George Cruikshank (1792-1878) Died 1 February 1878, aged 85 An English caricaturist and illustrator best known for illustrating Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist" and for satirical political cartoons. He later became a committed advocate of the temperance movement. His work influenced generations of British illustrators.
• 1792 – 1878 Pope Pius IX (1792-1878) Died 7 February 1878, aged 85 Born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, he served as pope from 1846 until his death, the longest reign in papal history. He convened the First Vatican Council, which proclaimed papal infallibility, and lost the Papal States to the newly unified Kingdom of Italy in 1870. He spent his final years as the self-declared "prisoner of the Vatican."
• 1878 Joseph Swan demonstrates incandescent lamp Early public display of electric light bulb technology British chemist Joseph Swan demonstrated a working incandescent electric lamp using a carbon filament to the Newcastle upon Tyne Chemical Society. His design predated Thomas Edison's commercially successful bulb by about a year. Swan later merged his patents with Edison's to found a joint lighting company in Britain.
• 1878 Edison patents the phonograph Foundational device for recorded sound Thomas Edison received a US patent for the phonograph, a device that could record and play back sound using a tinfoil-wrapped cylinder. He had built a working model the previous December. The invention launched the recorded sound industry and made Edison internationally famous.
• 1878 Bland-Allison Act US Congress mandates federal purchase of silver Congress passed the act over President Rutherford B. Hayes's veto, requiring the US Treasury to purchase silver bullion and mint it into silver dollars. The law responded to pressure from silver-mining interests and farmers seeking currency inflation during the Long Depression. It remained in effect until replaced by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1890.