in the end he was commissioned by the
French Ministry of War to undertake the journey to America in order
to negotiate with the Wright Brothers concerning French rights in the
patents they had acquired, and to study their work at first hand.

Ferber's experiments in gliding began in 1899 at the Military School at
Fountainebleau, with a canvas glider of some 80 square feet supporting
surface, and weighing 65 lbs. Two years later he constructed a larger
and more satisfactory machine, with which he made numerous excellent
glides. Later, he constructed an apparatus which suspended a plane from
a long arm which swung on a tower, in order that experiments might be
carried out without risk to the experimenter, and it was not until 1905
that he attempted power-driven free flight. He took up the Voisin design
of biplane for his power-driven flights, and virtually devoted all his
energies to the study of aeronautics. His book, Aviation, its Dawn
and Development, is a work of scientific value--unlike many of his
contemporaries, Ferber brought to the study of the problems of flight a
trained mind, and he was concerned equally with the theoretical problems
of aeronautics and the practical aspects of the subject.

After Bleriot's successful cross-Channel flight, it was proposed to
offer a prize of L1,000 for the feat which C. S. Rolls subsequently
accomplished (starting from the English side of the Channel), a flight
from Boulogne to Dover and back; in place of this, however, an aviation
week at Boulogne was organised, but, although numerous aviators were
invited to compete, the condition of the flying grounds was such that
no competitions took place. Ferber was virtually the only one to do any
flying at Boulogne, and at the outset he had his first accident; after
what was for those days a good flight, he made a series of circles
with his machine, when it suddenly struck the ground, being partially
wrecked. Repairs were carried out, and Ferber resumed his exhibition
flights, carrying on up to Wednesday, September 22nd, 1909. On that day
he remained in the air for half an hour, and, as he was about to land,
the machine struck a mound of earth and overturned, pinning Ferber under
the weight of the motor. After being extricated, Ferber seemed to show
little concern at the accident, but in a few minutes he complained of
great pain, when he was conveyed to the ambulance shed on the ground.

'I was foolish,' he told those who were with hi