On Tuesday I shared a search problem and wrote that you may e mail me for those who wished the solutions to the questions within the problem. I obtained much more emails than I believed I’d. And a few folks I emailed the solutions to wrote again asking for extra particulars concerning the technique of discovering the solutions. So yesterday morning I frolicked writing out the method of discovering the solutions to Tuesday’s search problem. Should you missed the problem, you could find it right here. The answer is detailed under.
Step 1: Determine the airplane and its historic significance.
The picture itself offers us an enormous trace. Do a fast Google search for “southern cross airplane” and the highest outcome will probably be a Wikipedia web page concerning the airplane. It’s vital to incorporate “airplane” within the search as a result of looking Google for simply “southern cross” will put a music video of the Crosby, Stills, and Nash track Southern Cross on the high of the outcomes. Additional down the search outcomes web page for “southern cross” you’ll discover hyperlinks to articles concerning the constellation of the identical identify, hyperlinks to an power firm, and hyperlinks to a Brazilian award for chivalry. In actual fact, you received’t see any reference to an airplane within the first ten pages of Google search outcomes when looking “southern cross.” Moreover, “southern cross airplane” isn’t even a time period that Google suggests while you enter “southern cross.”
As talked about above, the highest Google search outcome for “southern cross airplane” is the Wikipedia web page concerning the airplane. Learn by way of that web page and also you’ll be taught that it was the primary plane to be flown from the US to Australia.
Step 2: Determine who flew on the airplane.
Additionally on that very same Wikipedia web page you’ll be taught that the 4 members of the flight crew had been Charles Kingsford Smith, Charles Ulm, Harry Lyon, and James Warner.
When you’ve recognized who the members of the flight crew had been, the following step is to determine which one had a connection to Maine. To do that, open the Wikipedia web page for every member of the flight crew then use keyboard instructions of CTRL+F (Home windows computer systems) or COMMAND+F (Mac computer systems) to look every web page for the phrase “Maine.” Solely the pages for Charles Kingsford Smith and Harry Lyon embrace a match for “Maine” and the match on Smith’s web page is just discovered within the context of the phrase “remained.” Lyon’s web page consists of “Maine” as a part of a hyperlink to the Maine Reminiscence Community’s web site which is talked about within the hints for this problem.
Step 3: Discover the reference to Paris Hill.
Should you observe the hyperlink to the Maine Reminiscence Community from the Wikipedia web page about Harry Lyon, you’ll discover a pretty lengthy article about Lyon and his life together with that his mother and father purchased a home on Paris Hill and Lyon later lived there.
Alternatively, you may have adopted the trace about utilizing the Maine Reminiscence Community’s web site then headed there to do a search inside the website for references to Harry Lyon.
Step 4: Discover the reference to a automobile.
On the very backside of this Maine Reminiscence Community web page about Harry Lyon you’ll see an image of Lyon sitting in a automobile in his driveway in 1927. (The picture is copyrighted so you may must view it there).
Step 5: Determine the automobile.
That is the toughest a part of the entire problem. To do that you’ll need to enlarge the image discovered on the Maine Reminiscence Community’s article about Lyon. Fortuitously, they supply a zoomable model of the picture. By zooming in on the picture you’ll be able to have a look at some vital particulars together with the form of the entrance door on the automobile, the form of the entrance of the automobile, and a bit badge on the entrance of the automobile.
At this level the method turns into a bit little bit of guesswork adopted by a technique of comparability and elimination. There are some factors to contemplate earlier than guessing at what sort of automobile is within the image. Right here’s an inventory of these factors to contemplate:
First, the image was taken in 1927, a 12 months earlier than the flight of the Southern Cross.
From studying about him, we all know that Lyon was not a person of outstanding wealth, however in all probability center to upper-middle class.
Primarily based on Lyon’s monetary standing in addition to trying on the particulars of the automobile we are able to in all probability take away luxurious manufacturers from our guesswork.
Once we zoom-in on the automobile we are able to see that it has some imperfections as the results of driving and or post-manufacturing modification. Notable, there are what seems to be two picket bench seats behind the motive force’s seat. The again half of the physique seems to be picket as nicely.
Now that we’ve thought-about the factors above we are able to begin guessing on the producer of the automobile and the manufacturing 12 months. Noting that vehicles didn’t considerably change from one mannequin 12 months to the following presently, in the event that they did in any respect, we’re guessing the 12 months in line with decade or half-decade is a viable strategy to this problem. At this level, turning to Google Picture search is our subsequent step. A search for “1920s vehicles” or “1910s vehicles” is a beginning place. Nonetheless, these outcomes usually characteristic examples of luxurious vehicles of the time. We’re trying for vehicles that would have been owned by center to upper-middle class folks of the time. At this level within the course of it’s useful to have an inventory of American automobile producers of the 1910s and 1920s. Once more, we could flip to Wikipedia for such an inventory or to any variety of vintage automobile web sites for such an inventory.
Primarily based on the lists of American automobile producers and what we find out about Lyon, Ford is the most typical guess because it was the preferred model in the US on the time and remains to be within the forefront of Individuals’ minds at the moment after they consider car producers. Some adults will nonetheless consider Studebaker as an American automobile producer. Dodge can also be a standard guess because it satisfies each the value and recognition parts of our quest. So now it’s a matter of evaluating photos of vehicles produced by these producers throughout the 1910s and early 1920s.
Use Google Photos to search out photographs of Ford, Studebaker, and Dodge vehicles produced in these many years. Evaluate the photographs carefully to these of the image of Lyon sitting in his automobile and also you’ll begin to discover that the form of the door in his automobile doesn’t match these of Ford and Studebaker (they’re not as rounded on the backside). The entrance of Lyon’s automobile can also be extra rounded than that of the Fords and Studebakers made on the similar time. A ultimate element is on the hood of the automobile after we have a look at the radiator caps of the automobiles. In all three instances, the Dodge examples are in line with what we see within the image of Lyon in his automobile. The ultimate reply is a Dodge Touring automobile produced round 1919 (give or take a 12 months) that was modified within the again.
Disclosure: I spent at the least ten hours evaluating photographs of vehicles to the one in all Lyon sitting in his automobile. To confirm my details about the automobile I enlisted the assistance of 1 the highest vintage automobile preservationists within the nation, Jeff Orwig. Jeff is a pal of mine and the curator of Bob Bahre’s beautiful automobile assortment housed on Paris Hill in Paris, Maine. You possibly can learn extra concerning the assortment right here.