Whispering-gallery wave Whispering-gallery wave Whispering-gallery waves, or whispering-gallery modes, are a type of wave that can travel around a concave surface. Originally discovered for sound waves in the whispering gallery of St Paul’s Cathedral, they can exist for light and for other waves, with important applications in nondestructive testing, lasing, cooling and sensing, as well as in astronomy. Whispering-gallery waves were first explained for the case of St Paul's Cathedral circa 1878 by Lord Rayleigh, who revised a previous misconception that whispers could be heard across the dome but not at any intermediate position. He explained the phenomenon of travelling whispers with
Trail of the Whispering Giants one in Hawaii, and in 2008, he created his first "Whispering Giant" in Europe, Stephen I of Hungary in Délegyháza, Hungary along the Danube River. In 2009, eight more "Whispering Giants" were planned. (Update February 2, 2015) "The Trail of the Whispering Giants" is an ongoing project and much of the material here especially the chart below is out of date and too extensive to edit fully this article. A traveler, David Schumaker, went on a quest to identify all the "Whispering Giant" statues and has documented 57 existing statues and identified 12 that are now missing or destroyed since