-very's night signals-

{ or } [ After Lieut. Samuel W. Very, who invented the system in 1877. ] (Naut.) A system of signaling in which balls of red and green fire are fired from a pistol, the arrangement in groups denoting numbers having a code significance. The pistol used to fire the signal flare is called a
Very pistol. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC ]