Word Study
very night signals
CIDE DICTIONARY
very night signals, [After Lieut. Samuel W. Very , who invented the system in 1877.].
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.]
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