Whispering gallery

A whispering gallery is most simply constructed in the form of a circular wall, and allows whispered communication from any part of the internal side of the circumference to any other part. The sound is carried by waves, known as whispering-gallery waves, that travel around the circumference clinging to the walls, an effect that was discovered in the whispering gallery of St Paul's Cathedral in London.[https://archive.org/stream/scientificpapers05rayliala#page/n638/mode/1up Lord Rayleigh, The problem of the whispering gallery, Philos. Mag. 20, 1001,1910.] The extent to which the sound travels at St Paul's can also be judged by clapping in the gallery, which produces four echoes.[https://web.archive.org/web/20130429034256/http://mag.digitalpc.co.uk/Olive/ODE/physicsworld/LandingPage/LandingPage.aspx?href=UEhZU1dvZGUvMjAxMi8wMi8wMQ..&pageno=MzM.&entity=QXIwMzMwMA..&view=ZW50aXR5 O. Wright, Gallery of Whispers, Physics World 25, No. 2, Feb. 2012, p. 31.] Other historical examples{{cite journal |author-link1=C. V. Raman |first1=C. V. |last1=Raman |url=http://repository.ias.ac.in/69841/1/69841.pdf |title=On whispering galleries |journal =Bull. Indian Assoc. Cultiv. Sci. |volume=7 |pages=159-172 |date=1922 |via=IAS Fellows Publications }}[https://archive.org/details/collectedpaperso00sabi W. C. Sabine, Collected Papers on Acoustics (Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA) 1922, p. 255.]Peiping (American National Red Cross, American Red Cross Embassy Club) 1946, p. 17. are the Gol Gumbaz mausoleum in Bijapur, India and the Echo Wall of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. A hemispherical enclosure will also guide whispering gallery waves. The waves carry the words so that others will be able to hear them from the opposite side of the gallery.

The gallery may also be in the form of an ellipse or ellipsoid, with an accessible point at each focus. In this case, when a visitor stands at one focus and whispers, the line of sound emanating from this focus reflects directly to the focus at the other end of the gallery, where the whispers may be heard. In a similar way, two large concave parabolic dishes, serving as acoustic mirrors, may be erected facing each other in a room or outdoors to serve as a whispering gallery, a common feature of science museums. Egg-shaped galleries, such as the Golghar Granary at Bankipore, and irregularly shaped smooth-walled galleries in the form of caves, such as the Ear of Dionysius in Syracuse, also exist.

• The Gol Gumbaz in Bijapur, India.
• The Golghar Granary in Bankipore, India.
• The Victoria Memorial in Kolkata.

• St Paul's Cathedral in London is the place where whispering-gallery waves were first discovered by Lord Rayleigh {{circa|1878}}.Lord Rayleigh, Theory of Sound, vol. II, 1st edition, (London, MacMillan), 1878.
• Gloucester Cathedral has a whispering gallery.{{Cite web|url=https://gloucestercathedral.org.uk/visit/things-to-do/highlights/whispering-gallery.php|title=Gloucester Cathedral | Whispering Gallery}}
• The Berkeley Wetherspoons Bristol has a whispering gallery.{{Cite web|url=https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/~/media/images/pubs/0222/24.jpg?w=855&crop=1&cropx=50&cropy=50&hash=1567BDB14282A2D2648454826E48E874A3D509F9|title=Berkeley Wetherspoons}}

• Grand Central Terminal in New York City: a landing amid the Oyster Bar ramps, in front of the Oyster Bar restaurant {{cite web|title=Grand Central Terminal Whispering Gallery|url=http://buffaloah.com/a/gates/hist.html|website=Atlas Obscura|access-date=10 June 2017}}
• Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol.
• Salt Lake Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah
• Centennial fountain in front of Green Library at Stanford University in California{{cite web|title=Centennial Fountain - Stanford, CA - Whispering Galleries on Waymarking.com|url=http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMH5BQ_Centennial_Fountain_Stanford_CA|website=www.waymarking.com|access-date=23 October 2017|language=en}}
• Gates Circle, Buffalo, New York{{cite web|title=Gates Circle, New York, NY|url=http://buffaloah.com/a/gates/hist.html|website=Buffalo as an Architectural Museum|access-date=10 June 2017}}
• The Whispering Arch in St. Louis Union StationWaymarking.com, [http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM8T35_St_Louis_Union_Station_Whispering_Arch_St_Louis_Missouri St. Louis Union Station Whispering Arch]
• Charles Stover Bench, Central Park, New York, New York {{cite web|title=Charles Stover Bench|url=https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/central-park/highlights/13126|website=Official Website of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation|access-date=10 June 2017}}
• Waldo Hutchins Bench, Central Park, New York, New York{{cite web|title=Waldo Hutchins [Bench]|url=https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/central-park/monuments/761|website=Official Website of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation|access-date=10 June 2017}}
• Whispering Gallery, Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago)[http://www.msichicago.org/explore/whats-here/exhibits/whispering-gallery Whispering Gallery at MSI Chicago]

• The Echo Wall in the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.
• Basilica of St. John Lateran, Rome.
• The Salle des Caryatides in the Louvre, Paris, France.
• Ear of Dionysius cave in Syracuse, Sicily.
• Banco dos Namorados (Lovers' bench) in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.{{Cite web |date=2020-10-20 |title=El Banco dos Namorados de Santiago, donde intercambiar susurros a catorce metros |url=https://www.elespanol.com/quincemil/articulos/actualidad/el-banco-dos-namorados-de-santiago-donde-intercambiar-susurros-a-catorce-metros |access-date=2024-03-24 |website=Quincemil |language=es}}

The term whispering gallery has been borrowed in the physical sciences to describe other forms of whispering-gallery waves such as light or matter waves.{{Cite journal|last1=Katsnelson|first1=Boris G.|last2=Petrov|first2=Pavel S.|date=2019-09-01|title=Whispering gallery waves localized near circular isobaths in shallow water|url=https://asa.scitation.org/doi/10.1121/1.5125419|journal=The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America|volume=146|issue=3|pages=1968–1981|doi=10.1121/1.5125419|pmid=31590497 |bibcode=2019ASAJ..146.1968K |s2cid=203926782 |issn=0001-4966|url-access=subscription}}

• Acoustic mirror
• Parabolic loudspeaker
• Room acoustics

{{reflist}}

{{commons category|Whispering galleries}}

• [http://www.sonicwonders.org/?p=1086 Ear of Dionysius]: visiting information, videos and sounds of this cave.
• [http://www.sonicwonders.org/?p=426 Grand Central Station]: visiting information, videos and sounds of the whispering gallery.
• [http://www.sonicwonders.org/?p=57 St Paul's Cathedral]: visiting information, videos and sounds of the whispering gallery.

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Category:Acoustics

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