Soap bubble for its soaps in 1886 using a painting by John Everett Millais of a child playing with bubbles. The Chicago company Chemtoy began selling bubble solution in the 1940s, and bubble solution has been popular with children ever since. According to one industry estimate, retailers sell around 200 million bottles annually. A bubble is made of transparent water enclosing transparent air. However the soap film is as thin as the visible light wavelength, resulting in interferences. This creates iridescence which, together with the bubble's spherical shape and fragility, contributes to its magical effect on children and adults alike. Each colour
Autumn Leaves (painting) on Millais' sisters-in-law Alice and Sophy Gray, are portrayed in middle-class clothing of the era; the two on the right are in rougher, working class clothing. The painting has been seen as one of the earliest influences on the development of the aesthetic movement. The painting has typically been interpreted as a representation of the transience of youth and beauty, a common theme in Millais' art. Malcolm Warner argues that Millais was influenced by the poetry of Tennyson, at whose house he had once helped to rake together autumn leaves. Warner suggests that lines from Tennyson's song "Tears, Idle Tears"