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

On Tuesday I shared
a search obstacle and wrote that you might email me if you wanted the answers to the questions in the difficulty. I got
a lot more emails than I thought I would. And some individuals I emailed the answers to composed back asking for more information about the procedure of discovering the answers. So yesterday morning I hung out drawing up the process of discovering the responses to Tuesdays search challenge. If you missed out on the obstacle, you can
find it here. The service is detailed below..

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

Step 1: Identify the airplane and its historic significance.The image itself offers us a huge hint. Do a fast Google search for “southern cross aircraft” and the leading result will be a Wikipedia page about the plane. Its essential to include “aircraft” in the search due to the fact that searching Google for simply “southern cross” will put a video of the Crosby, Stills, and Nash tune Southern Cross at the top of the results. Even more down the search engine result page for “southern cross” youll discover links to posts about the constellation of the very same name, links to an energy company, and links to a Brazilian award for chivalry. You wont see any recommendation to a plane in the very first ten pages of Google search results when searching “southern cross.” Additionally, “southern cross plane” isnt even a term that Google suggests when you enter “southern cross.”.

Now that weve considered the points above we can begin rating the maker of the cars and truck and the production year. Keeping in mind that cars and trucks didnt considerably alter from one model year to the next at this time, if they did at all, were guessing the year according to years or half-decade is a practical approach to this obstacle. At this point, relying on Google Image search is our next action. A search for “1920s cars and trucks” or “1910s cars and trucks” is a beginning location. Nevertheless, those results typically include examples of luxury cars of the time. Were searching for vehicles that could have been owned by middle to upper-middle class individuals of the time. At this moment while doing so its useful to have a list of American car manufacturers of the 1910s and 1920s. Again, we might rely on Wikipedia for such a list or to any number of antique vehicle websites for such a list.

To do this youll desire to expand the picture discovered on the Maine Memory Networks article about Lyon. By zooming in on the image you can look at some essential information consisting of the shape of the front door on the car, the shape of the front of the vehicle, and a little badge on the front of the car.

Once youve recognized who the members of the flight team were, the next action 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 tips for this challenge.

Usage Google Images to discover pictures of Ford, Studebaker, and Dodge vehicles produced in those decades. Compare the photos carefully to those of the photo of Lyon being in his vehicle and youll begin to observe 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 also 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 final information is on the hood of the vehicle. In all three cases, the Dodge examples are consistent with what we see in the photo of Lyon in his automobile. The final answer is a Dodge Touring cars and truck produced around 1919 (provide or take a year) that was customized in the back.

You could have followed the tip about using the Maine Memory Networks website then headed there to do a search within the website for recommendations to Harry Lyon.

Disclosure: I invested a minimum of ten hours comparing images of vehicles to the among Lyon being in his cars and truck. To confirm my info about the car I got the assistance of one the leading antique cars and truck preservationists in the nation, Jeff Orwig. Jeff is a friend of mine and the curator of Bob Bahres exquisite automobile collection housed on Paris Hill in Paris, Maine. You can find out more about the collection here..

A search for “1920s vehicles” or “1910s cars and trucks” is a beginning place. Compare the photos closely to those of the image of Lyon sitting in his cars and truck and youll start to observe that the shape of the door in his automobile 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 and trucks to the one of Lyon sitting in his automobile. To verify my information about the car I got the help of one the leading antique automobile preservationists in the country, Jeff Orwig.

Based on the lists of American vehicle 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 automobile manufacturers. Now its a matter of comparing images of automobiles produced by those producers during the 1910s and early 1920s.

There are a few ways to get to the answers. What Ive detailed below is the most direct method to get to the responses. (Thanks again to Daniel Russells.
Delight of Search for inspiring the advancement of search difficulties like this one).

Action 2: Identify who flew on the plane.
On that exact same Wikipedia page youll learn that the 4 members of the flight team were Charles Kingsford Smith, Charles Ulm, Harry Lyon, and James Warner.

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

At this moment the process ends up being a little bit of uncertainty followed by a process of comparison and removal. There are some indicate consider before thinking at what type of automobile is in the picture. Heres a list of those indicate consider:.
First, 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 extraordinary wealth, but most likely middle to upper-middle class.
Based on Lyons monetary standing in addition to taking a look at the details of the automobile we can probably get rid of high-end brand names from our guesswork.
When we zoom-in on the automobile we can see that it has some imperfections as the outcome of driving and or post-manufacturing adjustment. Noteworthy, there are what appears to be two wooden bench seats behind the chauffeurs seat. The back half of the body appears to be wood too.

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

Step 3: Find the recommendation 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 consisting of that his parents bought a house on Paris Hill and Lyon later on lived there.

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