The Steam Savant: Genius and Madness in a Mechanical Age

The workshop occupied the entire third floor of Thornwick's Victorian mansion, its walls lined with shelves containing thousands of brass fittings, copper tubes, and mechanical components salvaged from a hundred different machines. Gas lamps flickered against the perpetual twilight created by the steam, casting dancing shadows that made the workshop appear alive with mechanical spirits. The wooden floors, once polished mahogany, now bore the permanent stains of oil, grease, and the occasional chemical explosion that punctuated Thornwick's more ambitious experiments.