After having studied in the southern city of Draguignan, receiving the Claude Gay Prize, and graduating from the École Polytechnique in 1891, he became an officer in the French army's Engineers Corps, specialising in the military telegraph service.

After being named to a committee exploring wireless telegraphy between France and England, in 1899 he carried out such communications in collaboration with Guglielmo Marconi.

His works had the title : “L'état actuel et les progrès de la télégraphie sans fil” (Current state and progress of wireless telegraphy).

Members of the group included Henri Abraham, Maurice de Broglie, Paul Laüt and Lucien Lévy.

Ferrié was the president of the Société astronomique de France (SAF), the French astronomical society, from 1925–1927.