The interior of the SS Bessemer with the gimballed passenger cabin. Source: J R Brown / Public Domain.

The SS Bessemer: the Worst Idea in Nautical History?

This is a story about an inventor and his invention. It is the story of striving to create something new and innovation in problem solving. It is also, perhaps more than anything, a story of failure. It is the story of a brilliant man trying to solve a longstanding problem. It is the story of

Bram stoker’s Dracula showed us the way to our modern pop-culture vampire. But the author needed to pay homage to existing legends, even as he created something new. Source: Dracula (1931) / Public Domain.

Dracula, Stoker’s Vision and the Path to the Modern Vampire

When Dracula was published in 1897 it was an instant success, but one built on an old legend. The strange gothic count of the novel may have been new, but the legend on which Bram Stoker built his story was decidedly not. Vampires had been around for hundreds of years, one of the motley assortment