Gustave-Auguste Ferrié (19 November 1868 – 16 February 1932) was a French

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

pioneer and army general.Gustave-Auguste Ferrié
Encyclopaedia Britannica

Biography

Early years

Ferrié was born in

Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne (, literally ''Saint-Michel of Maurienne''; ) is a commune in the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. Geography Climate Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne has an oceanic climate (Köp ...

Savoie Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè'' or ''Savouè-d'Avâl''; English: ''Savoy'' ) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Southeastern France. Located in the French Alps, its prefecture is Chambéry. In 2019, Savoie had a population o ...

. After having studied in the southern city of

Draguignan Draguignan (; ) is a commune in the Var department in the administrative region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (formerly Provence), southeastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department and self-proclaimed "capital of Artillery" an ...

, receiving the

Claude Gay Claude Gay, often named Claudio Gay in Spanish texts, (18 March 1800 – 29 November 1873), was a French botanist, naturalist and illustrator. This explorer carried out some of the first investigations about Chilean flora, fauna, geology and ge ...

Prize, and graduating from the

École Polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

in 1891, he became an officer in the French army's Engineers Corps, specialising in the military

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

service. After being named to a committee exploring

wireless telegraphy Wireless telegraphy or radiotelegraphy is the transmission of text messages by radio waves, analogous to electrical telegraphy using electrical cable, cables. Before about 1910, the term ''wireless telegraphy'' was also used for other experimenta ...

between

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, in 1899 he carried out such communications in collaboration with

Guglielmo Marconi Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquess of Marconi ( ; ; 25 April 1874 – 20 July 1937) was an Italian electrical engineer, inventor, and politician known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based Wireless telegraphy, wireless tel ...

. He exposed his works on 22 August 1900, when the International congress of electricity was organised in Paris. His works had the title : “''L'état actuel et les progrès de la télégraphie sans fil''” (''Current state and progress of wireless telegraphy''). In 1903 Ferrié invented a novel

electrolytic detector An electrolytic detector, or liquid barretter, is a type of detector (demodulator) used in early radio receivers. It was first used by Canadian radio researcher Reginald Fessenden in 1903, and used until about 1913, after which it was superseded ...

, invented independently by Dr. Michael I. Pupin (1899), Professor Reginald A. Fessenden (1903), and W. Schloemilch (1903). That same year he also proposed setting aerials on the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889. Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...

for long-range radiotelegraphy. Under his direction a transmitter was set up in the tower, and its effective range increased from an initial to by 1908. He then developed mobile transmitters for military units.

World War I

Ferrié headed the French Radiotelegraphie Militaire before and during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, where in 1914 he led two linked advances in military radio communications : practical ground telegraphy made feasible by the adoption of

vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, thermionic valve (British usage), or tube (North America) is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. It ...

s within

radio receiver In radio communications, a radio receiver, also known as a receiver, a wireless, or simply a radio, is an electronic device that receives radio waves and converts the information carried by them to a usable form. It is used with an antenna. ...

s. The transmitter was a buzzer, and the receiver an

amplifier An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It is a two-port electronic circuit that uses electric power from a power su ...

with

triode A triode is an electronic amplifier, amplifying vacuum tube (or ''thermionic valve'' in British English) consisting of three electrodes inside an evacuated glass envelope: a heated Electrical filament, filament or cathode, a control grid, grid ...

. By the end of the war the French had produced almost 10,000 such sets. Captain

Paul Brenot Paul Brenot (19 September 1880 – 19 August 1967) was a French engineer and industrialist who was active in the development of radio in France. He was an advocate of free enterprise and had corporatist opinions. He was criticized after World War ...

headed the second group of Ferrié's Military Telegraphic Service. Members of the group included

Henri Abraham Henri Abraham (12 July 1868–22 December 1943) was a French physicist who made important contributions to the science of radio waves. He performed some of the first measurements of the propagation velocity of radio waves, helped develop France's ...

Maurice de Broglie __NOTOC__ Maurice de Broglie, 6th Duke of Broglie (27 April 1875 – 14 July 1960) was a French physicist. His younger brother was the theoretical physicist Louis de Broglie. Biography Early years De Broglie was born in Paris, to Victor de Br ...

, Paul Laüt and Lucien Lévy. Lévy was made head of the Eiffel Tower Military Radio Telegraphy laboratory in 1916.

Later career

Ferrié was made a General in 1919 and so remained until his death, having been exempted from retirement rules by a special law of 1930, and became general inspector of military telegraphy. Ferrié was named a Fellow of the

Institute of Radio Engineers The Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) was a professional organization which existed from 1912 until December 31, 1962. On January 1, 1963, it merged with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) to form the Institute of Electrical ...

in 1917, and in 1931 received its Medal of Honour for "his pioneer work in the building of radio communication in France and in the world, his long continued leadership in the communication field, and his outstanding contributions to the organisation of international cooperation in radio." He received on honorary doctorate from

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

in 1919, and in 1922 became a member of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

. He was the first president of the French National Committee of Geodesy and Géophysique (1920–1926), president of the International Scientific Radio Union (U.R.S.I.) and the International Commission on Longitudes by Radio, and vice president of the International Board of Scientific Unions. Ferrié was the president of the Société astronomique de France (SAF), the French astronomical society, from 1925–1927.de la Société astronomique de France'', November 1937, plates X-IX
/ref> In 1927, he received the

Prix Jules Janssen The Prix Jules Janssen is the highest award of the Société astronomique de France (SAF), the French astronomical society. This annual prize is given to a professional French astronomer or to an astronomer of another nationality in recognition ...

, the highest award of SAF. Ferrié died on 16 February 1932, at the Val-du-Grâce military hospital in Paris. Several hours after his death he was awarded the

Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...

. Today the Espace Ferrié (Musée des Transmissions) continues his memory in

Cesson-Sévigné Cesson-Sévigné (; in Gallo: ''Séson'' or ''Seczon-Sevinyaé'', Breton: ''Saozon-Sevigneg'') is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in northwestern France. It is a suburb directly to the east of Rennes, bordered on its ...

. A college named "collège Ferrié" is located in

and in the 10th arrondissement of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

References

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