Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Very's \Ver"y's\, or Very \Ver"y\, night signals \night signals\
   . [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.