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

Now that weve considered the points above we can begin rating the producer of the production and the car year. Keeping in mind that cars and trucks didnt substantially change from one model year to the next at this time, if they did at all, were guessing the year according to decade or half-decade is a practical technique to this obstacle. At this moment, relying on Google Image search is our next step. A look for “1920s cars and trucks” or “1910s cars and trucks” is a starting location. Those outcomes generally include examples of high-end cars and trucks of the time. Were searching for cars that might have been owned by middle to upper-middle class individuals of the time. At this point in the process its handy to have a list of American vehicle producers of the 1910s and 1920s. Again, we might rely on Wikipedia for such a list or to any variety of antique cars and truck sites for such a list.

Step 5: Identify the car.This is the hardest part of the entire obstacle. To do this youll wish to expand the image found on the Maine Memory Networks article about Lyon. They supply a zoomable version of the image. By focusing on the image you can take a look at some crucial information consisting of 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 automobile.

On Tuesday I shared
If you wanted the responses to the questions in the challenge, a search difficulty and composed that you might email me. I got
a lot more emails than I thought I would. And some individuals I emailed the responses to composed back requesting for more information about the process of discovering the answers. The other day early morning I spent time writing out the procedure of discovering the responses to Tuesdays search challenge. If you missed out on the challenge, you can
discover it here. The option is detailed listed below..

Step 1: Identify the airplane and its historic significance.The image itself provides us a big tip. Do a quick Google search for “southern cross aircraft” and the top result will be a Wikipedia page about the plane. Its important to consist of “aircraft” in the search due to the fact that browsing Google for just “southern cross” will put a video of the Crosby, Stills, and Nash song Southern Cross at the top of the outcomes. Even more down the search engine result page for “southern cross” youll find links to articles 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 an aircraft in the first ten pages of Google search results when browsing “southern cross.” Additionally, “southern cross plane” isnt even a term that Google recommends when you get in “southern cross.”.

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

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

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

Step 2: Identify who flew on the aircraft.
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.

There are a couple of ways to show up at the responses. What Ive described below is the most direct way to get to the responses. (Thanks once again to Daniel Russells.
Pleasure of Search for inspiring the advancement of search obstacles like this one).

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 in the United States at the time and is still in the leading edge of Americans minds today when they believe of vehicle producers. Now its a matter of comparing images of automobiles produced by those manufacturers throughout the 1910s and early 1920s.

Once youve identified 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 utilize keyboard commands of CTRL+F (Windows computer systems) or COMMAND+F (Mac computers) to browse each page for the word “Maine.” Only the pages for Charles Kingsford Smith and Harry Lyon consist of a match for “Maine” and the match on Smiths page is only discovered in the context of the word “stayed.” Lyons page consists of “Maine” as part of a link to the Maine Memory Networks site which is discussed in the hints for this obstacle.

Disclosure: I invested at least 10 hours comparing images of cars to the among Lyon sitting in his cars and truck. To confirm my information about the automobile I got the aid of one the top antique cars and truck preservationists in the nation, Jeff Orwig. Jeff is a friend of mine and the manager of Bob Bahres exquisite automobile collection housed on Paris Hill in Paris, Maine. You can read more about the collection here..

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

Use Google Images to discover images of Ford, Studebaker, and Dodge automobiles produced in those years. Compare the photos carefully to those of the picture of Lyon sitting in his vehicle and youll start to see that the shape of the door in his vehicle doesnt match those of Ford and Studebaker (theyre not as rounded at the bottom). The front of Lyons automobile 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 cars, a final detail is on the hood of the cars and truck. In all three cases, the Dodge examples are consistent with what we see in the photo of Lyon in his cars and truck. The final answer is a Dodge Touring cars and truck produced around 1919 (offer or take a year) that was modified in the back.

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 article about Lyon and his life including that his parents bought a house on Paris Hill and Lyon later lived there.

At this moment the process ends up being a bit of uncertainty followed by a process of comparison and elimination. There are some points to think about prior to rating what type of vehicle is in the picture. Heres a list of those points to consider:.
Initially, the photo was taken in 1927, a year prior to the flight of the Southern Cross.
From checking out him, we understand that Lyon was not a man of exceptional wealth, but most likely middle to upper-middle class.
Based on Lyons monetary standing along with taking a look at the details of the car we can most likely eliminate luxury brand names from our guesswork.
When we zoom-in on the car we can see that it has some flaws as the result of driving and or post-manufacturing adjustment. Noteworthy, there are what seems 2 wooden bench seats behind the chauffeurs seat. The back half of the body appears to be wood also.

A search for “1920s cars” or “1910s vehicles” is a beginning place. Compare the images carefully to those of the picture of Lyon sitting in his automobile and youll begin to notice 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 invested at least 10 hours comparing images of vehicles to the one of Lyon sitting in his car. To validate my information about the vehicle I enlisted the assistance of one the leading antique cars and truck preservationists in the country, Jeff Orwig.

You may also like...