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

A search for “1920s cars” or “1910s cars” is a starting place. Compare the photos carefully to those of the picture of Lyon sitting in his cars and truck and youll begin to discover 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 spent at least ten hours comparing images of cars and trucks to the one of Lyon sitting in his cars and truck. To verify my info about the vehicle I got the aid of one the top antique cars and truck preservationists in the country, Jeff Orwig.

At this moment the procedure becomes a bit of uncertainty followed by a process of comparison and removal. There are some indicate consider before guessing at what kind of automobile is in the picture. Heres a list of those points to consider:.
Initially, the picture 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 male of remarkable wealth, however probably middle to upper-middle class.
Based on Lyons financial standing in addition to taking a look at the details of the car we can probably eliminate high-end brand names from our uncertainty.
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. Notable, there are what appears to be 2 wooden bench seats behind the drivers seat. The back half of the body appears to be wood.

By zooming in on the image you can look at some essential details 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 invested at least ten hours comparing images of vehicles to the one of Lyon sitting in his automobile. To verify my info about the vehicle I employed the assistance of one the leading antique vehicle preservationists in the nation, Jeff Orwig.

Once youve identified 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 site which is mentioned in the tips for this difficulty.

Now that weve thought about the points above we can begin guessing at the producer of the vehicle and the production year. Keeping in mind that vehicles 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 technique to this difficulty. A search for “1920s cars and trucks” or “1910s vehicles” is a starting place.

On Tuesday I shared
If you desired the responses to the concerns in the difficulty, a search difficulty and composed that you might email me. I got
a lot more emails than I believed I would. And some people I emailed the responses to wrote back asking for more details about the procedure of finding the answers. So yesterday early morning I hung around drawing up the procedure of finding the answers to Tuesdays search difficulty. You can if you missed out on the difficulty
discover it here. The solution is detailed below..

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

Based on the lists of American vehicle makers and what we know 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 forefront of Americans minds today when they think of automobile producers. Now its a matter of comparing images of automobiles produced by those manufacturers during the 1910s and early 1920s.

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

Use Google Images to find pictures of Ford, Studebaker, and Dodge automobiles produced in those years. Compare the photos closely to those of the photo of Lyon being in his car and youll begin to notice that the shape of the door in his automobile does not match those of Ford and Studebaker (theyre not as rounded at the bottom). The front of Lyons car is likewise more rounded than that of the Fords and Studebakers made at the very same time. A final detail is on the hood of the cars and truck when we look at the radiator caps of the vehicles. In all three cases, the Dodge examples follow what we see in the photo of Lyon in his automobile. The final answer is a Dodge Touring automobile produced around 1919 (give or take a year) that was customized in the back.

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 parents purchased a house on Paris Hill and Lyon later lived there.

Action 1: Identify the aircraft and its historic significance.The image itself gives us a big tip. Do a quick Google look for “southern cross airplane” and the top outcome will be a Wikipedia page about the plane. Its important to consist of “plane” in the search due to the fact that searching Google for just “southern cross” will put a 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. In truth, you wont see any referral to an aircraft in the first 10 pages of Google search engine result when browsing “southern cross.” Moreover, “southern cross plane” isnt even a term that Google suggests when you get in “southern cross.”.

As mentioned above, the leading Google search results page for “southern cross plane” is the Wikipedia page about the plane. Read through 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 extremely bottom of this Maine Memory Network page about Harry Lyon youll see an image of Lyon sitting in a cars and truck in his driveway in 1927. (The image is copyrighted so youll have to see it there)..

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

Step 5: Identify the car.This is the hardest part of the entire difficulty. To do this youll wish to enlarge the photo discovered on the Maine Memory Networks post about Lyon. They offer a zoomable version of the image. By focusing on the image you can look at some essential information including 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 automobile.

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