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

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

As pointed out above, the top Google search engine result for “southern cross airplane” is the Wikipedia page about the aircraft. Go through that page and youll learn that it was the very first airplane to be flown from the United States to Australia.

Step 5: Identify the car.This is the hardest part of the entire difficulty. To do this youll want to enlarge the picture found on the Maine Memory Networks short article about Lyon. Thankfully, they provide a zoomable variation of the image. By focusing on the image you can look at some crucial information including the shape of the front door on the cars and truck, the shape of the front of the car, and a little badge on the front of the automobile.

Step 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 find a relatively long short article about Lyon and his life including that his moms and dads bought a house on Paris Hill and Lyon later on lived there.

Step 2: Identify who flew on the airplane.
On that very same Wikipedia page youll learn that the 4 members of the flight crew were Charles Kingsford Smith, Charles Ulm, Harry Lyon, and James Warner.

When youve determined 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 mentioned in the hints for this difficulty.

On Tuesday I shared
If you wanted the answers to the questions in the challenge, a search difficulty and wrote that you might email me. I got
Yesterday morning I spent time writing out the process of finding the responses to Tuesdays search difficulty. If you missed the obstacle, you can
find it here. The service is detailed listed below..

Now that weve thought about the points above we can begin thinking at the maker of the car and the production year. Noting that automobiles didnt substantially change from one design year to the next at this time, if they did at all, were guessing the year according to years or half-decade is a feasible technique to this obstacle. A search for “1920s automobiles” or “1910s cars and trucks” is a beginning place.

At this point the process becomes a bit of guesswork followed by a process of contrast and removal. There are some indicate think about before guessing at what sort of automobile remains in the photo. Heres a list of those indicate think about:.
Initially, the image was taken in 1927, a year prior to the flight of the Southern Cross.
From checking out him, we know that Lyon was not a man of exceptional wealth, but probably middle to upper-middle class.
Based on Lyons financial standing as well as taking a look at the details of the vehicle we can probably get rid of luxury brands from our guesswork.
When we zoom-in on the cars and truck we can see that it has some flaws as the result of driving and or post-manufacturing adjustment. Significant, there are what seems two wood bench seats behind the drivers seat. The back half of the body appears to be wood also.

By zooming in on the image you can look at some important information including the shape of the front door on the cars and truck, the shape of the front of the vehicle, and a little badge on the front of the vehicle.

Based on the lists of American cars and truck manufacturers 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 automobile manufacturers. Some grownups will still think about Studebaker as an American automobile manufacturer. Dodge is also a typical guess as it satisfies both the price and popularity elements of our mission. So now its a matter of comparing photos of automobiles produced by those makers throughout the 1910s and early 1920s.

Action 1: Identify the plane and its historic significance.The image itself gives us a huge hint. Do a quick Google look for “southern cross airplane” and the leading outcome will be a Wikipedia page about the plane. Its essential to include “plane” in the search due to the fact that 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. Further down the search results page for “southern cross” youll find links to short articles about the constellation of the exact same name, links to an energy company, and links to a Brazilian award for chivalry. In truth, you will not see any recommendation to an airplane in the very first ten pages of Google search results when searching “southern cross.” Furthermore, “southern cross airplane” isnt even a term that Google recommends when you enter “southern cross.”.

Disclosure: I spent a minimum of 10 hours comparing images of automobiles to the one of Lyon being in his car. To verify my info about the car I got the assistance of one the top antique cars and truck preservationists in the nation, Jeff Orwig. Jeff is a pal of mine and the manager of Bob Bahres charming automobile collection housed on Paris Hill in Paris, Maine. You can check out more about the collection here..

A search for “1920s vehicles” or “1910s cars and trucks” is a starting place. Compare the photos closely to those of the image of Lyon sitting in his car and youll start to observe that the shape of the door in his car does not match those of Ford and Studebaker (theyre not as rounded at the bottom). Disclosure: I spent at least 10 hours comparing images of cars and trucks to the one of Lyon sitting in his car. To confirm my info about the automobile I got the assistance of one the top antique cars and truck preservationists in the country, Jeff Orwig.

Usage Google Images to find images of Ford, Studebaker, and Dodge automobiles produced in those years. Compare the photos closely to those of the image of Lyon being in his cars and truck and youll start to notice that the shape of the door in his cars and truck doesnt 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 very same time. When we look at the radiator caps of the automobiles, a last detail is on the hood of the vehicle. In all three cases, the Dodge examples are constant with what we see in the picture of Lyon in his cars and truck. The final answer is a Dodge Touring vehicle produced around 1919 (provide or take a year) that was customized in the back.

Step 4: Find the reference to an automobile. At the very bottom of this Maine Memory Network page about Harry Lyon youll see an image of Lyon being in a vehicle in his driveway in 1927. (The image is copyrighted so youll need to view it there)..

There are a few methods to get here at the answers. What Ive outlined listed below is the most direct method to get to the responses. (Thanks once again to Daniel Russells.
Pleasure of Search for motivating the development of search challenges like this one).

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