The American DeForest Wireless Telegraph Company had ten operating stations at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, From the main tower a continuous stream of messages werebeing aerographed to different parts of the fairgrounds
and to various points of the City of St. Louis.
The DeForest installations at the World's Fair were installed at considerable expense to DeForest, proved to be a very lucrative investment, as contracts were made to supply
World's Fair bulletins to the newspapers of the prominent cities and towns within a radius of two hundred miles of St. Louis.
DeForest's aims were also to make the stations the nucleus of a complete wireless system that operated between Chicago and New Orleans.
A complete set of DeForest Wireless apparatus was installed in the U. S. Government Building at the World's Fair, operated under the direct supervision of a representative of the United States Patent Office. Seven of the patent office's 700,000 inventions were found most notable and one of those that was selected was the DeForest System of Wireless Telegraphy. The Company also received the grand prize for their invention on `Electricity Day.'
The De Forest observation tower stood at the entrance to Orleans Plaza,
300 feet in height, and was equipped with two electric elevators. Many visitors rode to the top to gain a grand view of the fairgrounds.
The wireless telegraph station on the tower was on a 100-foot platform, far above the building tops and over-looking Forest Park.
The walls of the station were made entirely of glass.
The St. Louis "Post Dispatch" and the St. Louis "Star" received regular daily news service from this station. 3000 to 5000 words per day were transmitted at a rate of 25 to 35 words per minute, detailing such World's Fair news.
