Technology giant Toshiba has announced that it's entirely ceasing production of incandescent lightbulbs - a product that it's been making for more than 120 years.

Production of lightbulbs in Japan was started in 1890 by Ichisuke Fujioka, one of the leading engineers at the time. He established Hakunetsu-sha & Co, which eventually merged into Toshiba, as Japan’s first manufacturer of incandescent lamp bulbs. He started making just 10 bulbs a day, but that ramped up to 78 million a year at its peak, and in 2008 stood at 20 million.

The company had originally planned to phase out the production in 2011, as part of a move to concentrating on environmentally-friendly LED alternatives, but has brought the date forward a year. The company estimates that this forward step will save the equivalent of 430,000 tons of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere as a result of the inefficiency of incandescent bulbs.

That kills off 103 products that Toshiba sells, though equivalents from the company that offer an LED lighting option are already on the market, and Toshiba will now work to promote those instead. 

Via: technology4media.com

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