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

Now that weve considered the points above we can start rating the maker of the production and the car year. Noting that automobiles 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 practical method to this challenge. At this point, relying on Google Image search is our next action. A look for “1920s cars” or “1910s automobiles” is a beginning place. However, those outcomes usually include examples of luxury cars of the time. Were searching for cars that could have been owned by middle to upper-middle class people of the time. At this point at the same time its practical to have a list of American vehicle makers of the 1910s and 1920s. Once again, we might rely on Wikipedia for such a list or to any number of antique car websites for such a list.

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

A search for “1920s cars and trucks” or “1910s cars and trucks” is a beginning place. Compare the photos closely to those of the picture of Lyon sitting in his vehicle 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). Disclosure: I spent at least ten hours comparing images of cars to the one of Lyon sitting in his cars and truck. To validate my info about the cars and truck I enlisted the help of one the top antique car preservationists in the nation, Jeff Orwig.

Step 1: Identify the airplane and its historical significance.The image itself gives us a big hint. Do a fast Google look for “southern cross plane” and the top outcome will be a Wikipedia page about the aircraft. Its essential to consist of “plane” in the search because searching 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 posts about the constellation of the exact same name, links to an energy company, and links to a Brazilian award for chivalry. You wont see any recommendation to an aircraft in the very first 10 pages of Google search results when browsing “southern cross.” “southern cross aircraft” isnt even a term that Google suggests when you go into “southern cross.”.

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 article 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 automobile, the shape of the front of the cars and truck, and a little badge on the front of the cars and truck.

At this point the process becomes a bit of guesswork followed by a process of contrast and elimination. There are some points to think about before guessing at what type of automobile remains in the image. Heres a list of those points to think about:.
The picture was taken in 1927, a year prior to the flight of the Southern Cross.
From checking out about him, we understand that Lyon was not a guy of remarkable 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 get rid of luxury brand names from our guesswork.
When we zoom-in on the car we can see that it has some imperfections as the outcome of driving and or post-manufacturing adjustment. Notable, there are what appears to be two wood bench seats behind the motorists seat. The back half of the body appears to be wood.

Additionally, you might 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.

As soon as youve recognized who the members of the flight crew were, the next step is to figure out which one had a connection to Maine. To do this, open the Wikipedia page for each member of the flight crew then use keyboard commands of CTRL+F (Windows computer systems) or COMMAND+F (Mac computer systems) to search 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 just discovered in the context of the word “remained.” Lyons page includes “Maine” as part of a link to the Maine Memory Networks site which is discussed in the hints for this difficulty.

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 fairly long short article about Lyon and his life including that his parents purchased a home on Paris Hill and Lyon later on lived there.

Based upon the lists of American car 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 forefront of Americans minds today when they consider auto producers. Some adults will still consider Studebaker as an American vehicle maker. Dodge is likewise a common guess as it satisfies both the price and popularity parts of our quest. Now its a matter of comparing photos of automobiles produced by those manufacturers during the 1910s and early 1920s.

Usage Google Images to find pictures of Ford, Studebaker, and Dodge cars produced in those years. Compare the pictures closely to those of the image of Lyon being in his cars and truck and youll start 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). The front of Lyons automobile is likewise more rounded than that of the Fords and Studebakers made at the same time. A final information is on the hood of the vehicle when we look at the radiator caps of the vehicles. In all three cases, the Dodge examples are consistent with what we see in the photo of Lyon in his automobile. The last answer is a Dodge Touring vehicle produced around 1919 (take a year or give) that was customized in the back.

There are a few ways to get to the answers. What Ive outlined listed below is the most direct method to get to the answers. (Thanks again to Daniel Russells.
Happiness of Search for motivating the development of search difficulties like this one).

Step 4: Find the recommendation to a vehicle. At the extremely 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 have to view it there)..

Disclosure: I spent a minimum of 10 hours comparing images of automobiles to the among Lyon sitting in his vehicle. To validate my info about the vehicle I got the assistance 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 charming automobile collection housed on Paris Hill in Paris, Maine. You can learn more about the collection here..

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

By zooming in on the image you can look at some crucial details 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 automobile.

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

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