What Car Did Harry Lyon Drive? – The Answer to Tuesday’s Search Challenge

Step 4: Find the recommendation to a vehicle. At the really bottom of this Maine Memory Network page about Harry Lyon youll see an image of Lyon being in a cars and truck in his driveway in 1927. (The image is copyrighted so youll have to see it there)..

Step 1: Identify the airplane and its historic significance.The image itself offers us a huge hint. Do a quick Google look for “southern cross airplane” and the top result will be a Wikipedia page about the plane. Its important to include “aircraft” in the search because browsing Google for just “southern cross” will put a music video of the Crosby, Stills, and Nash tune Southern Cross at the top of the results. Even more down the search results page for “southern cross” youll discover links to posts about the constellation of the same name, links to an energy company, and links to a Brazilian award for chivalry. You wont see any referral to a plane in the very first 10 pages of Google search results when searching “southern cross.” “southern cross aircraft” isnt even a term that Google recommends when you enter “southern cross.”.

You might have followed the hint about utilizing the Maine Memory Networks site then headed there to do a search within the website for references to Harry Lyon.

By zooming in on the image you can look at some essential information consisting of the shape of the front door on the vehicle, the shape of the front of the car, and a little badge on the front of the car.

Disclosure: I spent at least ten hours comparing images of cars and trucks to the among Lyon sitting in his vehicle. To validate my details about the cars and truck I employed the help of one the top antique automobile preservationists in the country, Jeff Orwig. Jeff is a good friend of mine and the curator of Bob Bahres beautiful car collection housed on Paris Hill in Paris, Maine. You can learn more about the collection here..

Based on the lists of American car producers and what we understand about Lyon, Ford is the most common guess as it was the most popular brand name in the United States at the time and is still in the leading edge of Americans minds today when they think of vehicle producers. Now its a matter of comparing photos of vehicles produced by those producers during the 1910s and early 1920s.

Usage Google Images to find pictures of Ford, Studebaker, and Dodge cars produced in those decades. Compare the pictures carefully to those of the photo of Lyon sitting in his automobile and youll start to see that the shape of the door in his cars and truck does not match those of Ford and Studebaker (theyre not as rounded at the bottom). The front of Lyons lorry is likewise more rounded than that of the Fords and Studebakers made at the exact same time. When we look at the radiator caps of the automobiles, a final detail is on the hood of the automobile. In all three cases, the Dodge examples follow what we see in the image of Lyon in his vehicle. The last response is a Dodge Touring automobile produced around 1919 (provide or take a year) that was customized in the back.

At this point the procedure ends up being a bit of uncertainty followed by a process of contrast and elimination. There are some points to consider before rating what type of car remains in the image. Heres a list of those indicate consider:.
The picture was taken in 1927, a year prior to the flight of the Southern Cross.
From checking out about him, we know that Lyon was not a guy of extraordinary wealth, however probably middle to upper-middle class.
Based upon Lyons monetary standing as well as looking at the information of the automobile we can probably get rid of high-end brands from our guesswork.
When we zoom-in on the car we can see that it has some flaws as the outcome of driving and or post-manufacturing adjustment. Noteworthy, there are what seems 2 wood bench seats behind the chauffeurs seat. The back half of the body appears to be wood also.

Action 2: Identify who flew on the plane.
Likewise on that very same Wikipedia page youll find out that the four members of the flight crew were Charles Kingsford Smith, Charles Ulm, Harry Lyon, and James Warner.

Action 3: Find the reference to Paris Hill. If you follow the link to the Maine Memory Network from the Wikipedia page about Harry Lyon, youll discover a relatively long post about Lyon and his life consisting of that his parents purchased a house on Paris Hill and Lyon later on lived there.

A search for “1920s cars and trucks” or “1910s cars and trucks” is a beginning place. Compare the images carefully to those of the image of Lyon sitting in his cars and truck and youll start to notice that the shape of the door in his vehicle does not match those of Ford and Studebaker (theyre not as rounded at the bottom). Disclosure: I invested at least 10 hours comparing images of cars to the one of Lyon sitting in his car. To confirm my details about the car I got the aid of one the leading antique car preservationists in the country, Jeff Orwig.

Step 5: Identify the car.This is the hardest part of the entire challenge. To do this youll wish to expand the image found on the Maine Memory Networks article about Lyon. Luckily, they supply a zoomable version of the image. By focusing on the image you can look at some essential information consisting of the shape of the front door on the vehicle, the shape of the front of the cars and truck, and a little badge on the front of the car.

On Tuesday I shared
a search obstacle and composed that you could email me if you desired the responses to the questions in the obstacle. I got
The other day early morning I invested time writing out the process of finding the responses to Tuesdays search obstacle. If you missed the challenge, you can
discover it here. The service is detailed listed below..

As discussed above, the leading Google search results page for “southern cross airplane” is the Wikipedia page about the aircraft. Check out through that page and youll discover that it was the very first aircraft to be flown from the United States to Australia.

When youve recognized who the members of the flight crew were, the next step is to figure out which one had a connection to Maine. Lyons page consists of “Maine” as part of a link to the Maine Memory Networks website which is discussed in the hints for this challenge.

Now that weve considered the points above we can begin thinking at the maker of the production and the automobile year. Noting that vehicles didnt significantly alter from one design year to the next at this time, if they did at all, were thinking the year according to years or half-decade is a practical approach to this difficulty. A search for “1920s automobiles” or “1910s automobiles” is a beginning place.

There are a few methods to come to the responses. What Ive described listed below is the most direct way to get to the answers. (Thanks again to Daniel Russells.
Delight of Search for inspiring the development of search challenges like this one).

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