This concept of the electric field being zero inside of a closed conducting surface was first demonstrated by Michael Faraday, a 19th century physicist who promoted the field theory of electricity. Faraday constructed a room within a room, covering the inner room with a metal foil. He sat inside the inner room with an electroscope and charged the surfaces of the outer and inner room using an electrostatic generator. While sparks were seen flying between the walls of the two rooms, there was no detection of an electric field within the inner room. The excess charge on the walls of the inner room resided entirely upon the outer surface of the room. Today, this demonstration is often repeated in physics demonstration shows at museums and universities.