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

As soon as youve recognized who the members of the flight crew were, the next step is to determine which one had a connection to Maine. To do this, open the Wikipedia page for each member of the flight team then use keyboard commands of CTRL+F (Windows computers) or COMMAND+F (Mac computers) to search each page for the word “Maine.” Just the pages for Charles Kingsford Smith and Harry Lyon consist of a match for “Maine” and the match on Smiths page is only found in the context of the word “remained.” Lyons page consists of “Maine” as part of a link to the Maine Memory Networks website which is mentioned in the tips for this obstacle.

Based on the lists of American automobile makers and what we understand about Lyon, Ford is the most typical guess as it was the most popular brand in the United States at the time and is still in the forefront of Americans minds today when they think about auto producers. Some adults will still think about Studebaker as an American cars and truck manufacturer. Dodge is likewise a common guess as it pleases both the price and popularity components of our quest. Now its a matter of comparing photos of vehicles produced by those makers during the 1910s and early 1920s.

Action 3: Find the referral 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 article about Lyon and his life including that his parents bought a home on Paris Hill and Lyon later on lived there.

To do this youll desire to increase the size of the photo discovered on the Maine Memory Networks post about Lyon. By zooming in on the image you can look at some crucial information including the shape of the front door on the automobile, the shape of the front of the cars and truck, and a little badge on the front of the cars and truck.

There are a few methods to get to the responses. What Ive laid out listed below is the most direct method to get to the responses. (Thanks once again to Daniel Russells.
Joy of Search for inspiring the development of search difficulties like this one).

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

Now that weve considered the points above we can begin guessing at the manufacturer of the cars and truck and the production year. Noting that cars didnt substantially change from one design year to the next at this time, if they did at all, were thinking the year according to decade or half-decade is a feasible approach to this difficulty. At this point, relying on Google Image search is our next action. A search for “1920s automobiles” or “1910s vehicles” is a beginning place. However, those outcomes typically feature examples of luxury automobiles of the time. Were trying to find cars and trucks that could have been owned by middle to upper-middle class people of the time. At this moment while doing so its handy to have a list of American vehicle manufacturers of the 1910s and 1920s. Again, we may turn to Wikipedia for such a list or to any variety of antique vehicle sites for such a list.

By zooming in on the image you can look at some crucial information including the shape of the front door on the car, the shape of the front of the automobile, and a little badge on the front of the car.

A search for “1920s vehicles” or “1910s cars” is a beginning place. Compare the pictures closely to those of the picture of Lyon sitting in his car and youll begin 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). Disclosure: I invested at least ten hours comparing images of cars to the one of Lyon sitting in his automobile. To validate my details about the cars and truck I employed the assistance of one the leading antique automobile preservationists in the nation, Jeff Orwig.

Step 2: Identify who flew on the aircraft.
Likewise on that exact same Wikipedia page youll discover that the four members of the flight crew were Charles Kingsford Smith, Charles Ulm, Harry Lyon, and James Warner.

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 an automobile in his driveway in 1927. (The image is copyrighted so youll need to view it there)..

Action 1: Identify the aircraft and its historical significance.The image itself gives us a huge tip. Do a fast Google search for “southern cross airplane” and the leading outcome will be a Wikipedia page about the aircraft. Its important to include “plane” in the search since browsing Google for simply “southern cross” will put a music video of the Crosby, Stills, and Nash song Southern Cross at the top of the outcomes. Further down the search engine result page for “southern cross” youll discover links to posts about the constellation of the exact same name, links to an energy business, and links to a Brazilian award for chivalry. You will not see any reference to an airplane in the first ten pages of Google search results when searching “southern cross.” “southern cross airplane” isnt even a term that Google suggests when you go into “southern cross.”.

At this moment the process becomes a bit of guesswork followed by a procedure of contrast and removal. There are some points to consider prior to guessing at what sort of automobile is in the picture. Heres a list of those indicate consider:.
First, the photo was taken in 1927, a year before the flight of the Southern Cross.
From reading about him, we understand that Lyon was not a male of extraordinary wealth, but most likely middle to upper-middle class.
Based upon Lyons monetary standing along with taking a look at the information of the car we can probably get rid of high-end brand names from our guesswork.
When we zoom-in on the vehicle we can see that it has some flaws as the outcome of driving and or post-manufacturing modification. Noteworthy, there are what appears to be two wood bench seats behind the chauffeurs seat. The back half of the body seems wood too.

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

Use Google Images to discover images of Ford, Studebaker, and Dodge vehicles produced in those decades. Compare the images carefully to those of the image of Lyon sitting in his car and youll begin 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 automobile is also more rounded than that of the Fords and Studebakers made at the same time. A final detail is on the hood of the automobile when we look at the radiator caps of the cars. 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 response is a Dodge Touring car produced around 1919 (take a year or give) that was modified in the back.

Disclosure: I invested a minimum of ten hours comparing pictures of automobiles to the one of Lyon being in his automobile. To validate my details about the automobile I employed the aid of one the top antique vehicle preservationists in the nation, Jeff Orwig. Jeff is a friend of mine and the curator of Bob Bahres beautiful vehicle collection housed on Paris Hill in Paris, Maine. You can check out more about the collection here..

Additionally, you might have followed the tip about using the Maine Memory Networks website then headed there to do a search within the website for referrals to Harry Lyon.

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