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Short Stuff: Snow Globes · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and Jerry's here sitting in for Dave. So
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: this is short Stuff, the Happy Holiday's edition. That's right,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Happy Holidays. This is good. This would fit nicely in
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: our holiday episode. But I like the idea of but
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: shorty as well. Yeah, and we've got to we can't
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: just be like, oh, we'll just talk about pickles a
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: couple of days before Christmas. You don't like pickles of
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: any sort, do you know? It's the vinegar thing. I
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: love cucumbers. You can ruin a good cucumber by soaking
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: it in vinegar. Yeah, I love them. I know I'm
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: a weirdo. People love pickles. Yeah, I'm crazy for him.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: And also everybody you can save your emails were very
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: well aware of the irony that we I use pickles
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: as an example of something we're not talking about, and
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: then we started talking about pickles. Is that a thing
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: we do? It just happened at the very beast we're
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: talking about snow gloves though, right, yeah, absolutely, Um, snow
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: gloves are really really interesting as far as like the
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: backstory goes, Like I had no idea. I thought it
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: would probably be kind of cool, but it actually kind
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: of knocked my socks off, So hopefully it'll knock everybody
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: else's socks off just in time for them to be
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: put up alongside the fireplace. Wow, look at you. What
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: a great rejoinder, thanks to they use that right. Yeah, okay, alright,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: so we're gonna go back in time. Let's hop in
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: the old way back machine. It's been a while. Dust
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: that thing off, and let's go back to a time
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: and place where people worked by candle light. And candle
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: light only gives off so much light. Uh. You can
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: try different kinds of wax in the candle. Some of
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: might burn a little bit brighter. I think the bees
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: wax candle is the brightest. But if you are performing surgery,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: let's say, or if you're a cobbler and you're doing
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: some fine detail work or a tailor or something like that,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: then you might need more light. Uh. And I'm looking around,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: it's pretty dark around us. And so someone had the
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: bright idea of putting a glass globe filled with water
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: in front of a candle, and it created a bit
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: of a more intense flashlight effect. Yeah, basically it creates
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: a spotlight and like a good sized one. I saw
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: it's about hand size, which is that's all you need
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: when you're sewing shoe soles, you know. So this, uh,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: this trick um was what was trying to be recreated
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: when the guy who is credited with inventing snow globes
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: um stumbled upon them. He was a man named Erwin Persey.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: He was an Austrian and his business was surgical instruments.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: He made them, and there was a local surgeon and
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I believe Vienna, who said, hey, these new bulbs from
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Mr Edison are pretty great, but I need to make
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: them brighter. Can you do anything about that? And so
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: first thing you tried was that old shoemaker's trick and
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: he found it kind of works, but not necessarily. Maybe
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: if I put something in there with him, uh, it
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: will it will work. Um. He tried to think some
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: glitter first and that probably would have worked pretty well,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: but it sunk too fast. So then he turned to semolina,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: which is um partially milled wheat that that it comes
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: into form of like kind of tiny white particles. Yeah,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: you probably have like semolina bread or something like that. Uh.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: They put it in baby formula back then. But when
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: he put the semolina in the water, it didn't dissolve,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: and it stayed intact, and it sort of was suspended
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: a little better than that glitter and was white and
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: eventually would trickle down to the bottom, and Petsy went,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: my goodness, it looks like a little snow inside this globe.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: I think it might be onto something here. Yeah. So
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: um persy uh is credited pretty much universally as the
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: inventor of the snow globe. What's interesting about it is
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: he most certainly wasn't, in fact, just some thing like
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: twenty year or so years before he Um invented his
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: snow globe, there was one that had been displayed at
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: the Paris Exposition of eighteen seventy eight. Yeah, in the
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: form of a paper weight. Uh, and it had a
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: dude with an umbrella. When he shook that thing up, Uh,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: it would look like he was walking through a snowstorm. Um.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: This is not the kind of thing they have in
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: a museum somewhere, but they do have a description h
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: and a report on the exposition, So it definitely happened.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: First that I don't think anyone ever accused Prettsy of
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: stealing it. I think it's one of those things that
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: was discovered just sort of individually by different people. Yeah,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: and if he was aware of it, he wasn't inspired
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: by it. Um. What's interesting is it goes even further
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: back than that, all the way back to the sixteenth century.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: UM there was apparently a German alchemist named Leonard Furnace
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: thur Nicer. Yeah, I'm going with that who made um
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: basically snow globe, but rather than um snow, he filled
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: it with birds, so the birds would just fly around.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: This is seventy two before. Right. Again, I don't think
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Pertsy was aware of Leonard Thurnasir and his alchemy work.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: He just kind of stumbled upon it. But because of that,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: because of the Paris Exposition, because in America, a guy
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: named Joseph Garaga was given a patent for something kind
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: of like the snow globe. It's a little muddy. The French,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: I believe, make a claim certainly for the inventors of
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: the snow globe, but everybody says it was really Pertsy
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: who took this idea and ran with it. And he
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: definitely ran with it. All right, it's a good spot
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: for a break. We're gonna go back and tell the
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: rest of his story right after this. Alright, so uh,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Prettsy has invented this snow globe files for a pattern,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: A nine for a quote glass globe with snow effect
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: end quote called the snake Google. Snay is German for
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: snow and Google is like a globe or a ball
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: or an orb. I've seen it. It's like a cannon
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: ball or a sphere, but it's snow globe. Um. It
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: took about five years only before there was a business
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: being run in Vienna name firm Pertsy, and then they
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: later changed the name to the original Vienna schna Google
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: manufactor the original Vienna snow Globe Factory. And they are
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: still making those snow globes. And it's still the family
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: making those snow globes. Yeah. Um Erwin Pertsey, the third
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: who now runs the show in has since the eighties.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: So cool. Yeah, it is really cool and they're really
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: high end snow globes too. I think several American presidents
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: of UM commissioned snow globes from They take custom orders.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: So if you have a really cool snow globe idea
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: and a chunk of change, the persis will make you
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: whatever you want. Um, I this I'm not friends with them.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: I just have heard this before, so I wonder if
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Erwin the third was in the eighties, was like nine,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be a uh like in a band,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: like craft work and they said, you realize you live
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: in a castle. Would you like to see the balance sheet?
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: And maybe I'll stay in the family business. So the
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: first forty years Chuck Um, they weren't really associated with
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Christmas that came later on. Instead, they were typically religious
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: theme stuff. One of their blockbusters sellers was the um
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Maria Zell Basilica, which is a church in Austria. It's
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: not in Vienna. I think it's more towards the East
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: um and it's a pretty big, imposing Baroque cathedral. And
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: one of the reasons why they focused so much on
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: this is because it was a um It was sold
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: as a religious offering to pilgrims who would come to
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: this church like they yeah, a religious souvenir. They set
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: up a stall and they would say souvenirs novelties six
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: and people would buy the snowblop and they would leave
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: it as an offering. Yeah, they set up thing between
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: you and the exit, and it thus began the exit
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: through the gift shop, exit the church through the gift shop.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: But yeah, they took off really in a big way.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Um Orson Wells used one very famously in Citizen Kane
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: at the end when that snow globe breaks. Um, I'm
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: curious now if they made the St. Eligia's hospital one.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, for the end of saying elsewhere, man, that's
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: a great question. I got to look that up. But
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Irwin two took over after World War Two and said,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: you know what, we're doing great with these religious globes,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: but uh, snow means Christmas. Christmas means snow. Why don't
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: we start putting Santa claus Is in there and Christmas
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: trees and snowmen. And they did, and then it became
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: really heavily associated with Christmas. And they are pumping out
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: with about thirty employees, about two d thousands of these
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: still every year. And they're they're all like made by hand,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: their hand painted. Um. Again, they're like really well made. UM.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Early on, though, um, they became like an American phenomenon,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: like America said, these are ours, snow gloves are American
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: from now on. By about the mid twentieth century, I
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: believe UM and they actually became like a like a
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: go to souvenir in the post war boom where people
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: started traveling round UM, where they started making you know,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: better highways and all that, and Americans just started driving around.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: And one of the reasons why that was UM able
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: to happen was thanks to innovations in plastic. Yeah, uh,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: you know, plastic changed everything for good and bad. And
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: they found out, you know, they're always looking for the
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: perfect UM particulate. I guess to act as the snow
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: because what you don't want is to shake this thing up.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: And if you've ever seen it had a cheap snow
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: globe and had plenty of those growing up, trust me, Uh,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: if you shake that thing up and the snows on
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: the ground in fifteen seconds, you're really not getting that
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: sense of awe and wonder that you're looking for. You
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: wanted to stay uh floating around. And over the years,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: they experimented with different types of matter to use in there,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: and I think there's is a there's is a trade secret, right,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: That's the impression I have, Yes, that they're not letting
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: anyone know, but it's some sort of wax or and
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: or plastic. Okay, and apparently there's are so well made
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: that there's snowfalls can last two minutes after you shake
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: it up two minutes. By halfway through that you'd be like, Okay,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: enough already, I don't need to be delighted any longer.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm gonna get one of these. This has
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: inspired me. I'm gonna get a genuine Irwin Austrian snow globe. Well,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Irwin was the first name. I guess we're pretty tight. Yeah,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: I guess, so you're on a first name basis. You
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: call him Pertsy, I'll call him Ernie. The third um
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: so Chuck. I think we've reached the end of this
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: holiday centric short stuff Don't you do well? Jingle bells
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• 11:49
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