A shell's rainbow can be copied into black wax.

Brewster found that an impression of mother-of-pearl could also shine with colour. The wax copied tiny surface grooves that redirect light.

The shell had passed on a pattern capable of making colour.

He copied a shell's rainbow into black wax.

Illustrated reconstruction of a mother-of-pearl surface lifted from black wax, leaving a grooved impression with a rainbow sheen. Enlarged diagrams compare surface grooves and reflected light.

Brewster’s copied rainbow, reconstructed schematically. The experiment concerns transferable surface diffraction; nacre also has internal optical structure.

The waved structure of nacre in Gosse’s original diagram, shown as an interpretive colour remaster.

He copied a shell's rainbow into black wax.

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