Accidental Invention: The Centennial Snow Globe's Legacy

The Perzy family of Vienna accidentally invented the snow globe. In 1900, Erwin Perzy I, attempting to improve operating room lighting, accidentally created a glass globe filled with water and white particles that floated like snow. He had a brilliant idea, placing a miniature model of the Mariazell Basilica inside, creating the first snow globe. This accidental invention unexpectedly swept the world, weathering wars and economic depressions, and through generations of the Perzy family, became a Christmas classic, still produced by the family business at a rate of 300,000 per year.