Augustus Pleasonton

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Augustus Pleasonton was born in Washington D.C. in 1808.A. J. Pleasonton, [https://books.google.com/books?id=xXQSAAAAYAAJ&q=hopkins&pg=PP7 The Influence of the Blue Ray of the Sunlight and of the Blue Color of the Sky] (Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, 1877), 184. He was the second son of Stephen Pleasonton and Mary Hopkins (from Lancaster, Pennsylvania). Mary was the third daughter of John Hopkins, a wealthy farmer and then Senator of the state of Pennsylvania.

Augustus Pleasonton would go on to serve in the military, directly influenced by his father's public and civil service, as would Augustus' younger brother General Alfred Pleasonton, who commanded the Cavalry Corps in the Civil War.

Pleasonton married Caroline Dugan, and the couple had six children who survived infancy. Caroline died on November 25, 1855.{{cite book |last1=Outerbridge |first1=Albert A. |title=Pennsylvania State Reports Containing Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, vol. 99 |date=1883 |publisher=Banks & Brothers |location=New York |page=364 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wwL0AAAAMAAJ |access-date=4 August 2023}} In 1864 he married Elizabeth Hoge.10th Presbyterian Church, "Session and Register of Marriages, 1830-1892," from [https://www.ancestry.com/ Ancestry.com] {{registration required}}

Pleasonton attended the United States Military Academy, graduating in 1826. His first posting was at the Artillery School of Practice at Fort Monroe, Virginia. From 1827 he served on topographical duty, resigning in June 1830.

In 1833, he became a brigade major in the Pennsylvania volunteer militia. In 1835 he was elected as colonel of the Regiment of Artillery, First Brigade,{{cite news |title=First Brigade | work=National Gazette (Philadelphia) | date=1835-06-11}} and served as assistant adjutant general and paymaster general of the state of Pennsylvania. He became president of the Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mountjoy and Lancaster Railroad in 1839. In July 1844, while engaging armed rioters in Southwark, Pennsylvania, he was wounded by a musket ball to the left groin. He continued serving in the militia until 1845.

Pleasonton was appointed to the rank of brigadier general of the Pennsylvania militia in May 1861, during the Civil War. He commanded a 10,000-strong detachment of home guard infantry, cavalry, and artillery for the defense of the city of Philadelphia.

Apparently influenced by Robert Hunt's

research into the effect of different wavelengths of light on the growth of plants,{{cite book |last1=Hunt |first1=Robert |title=Researches on Light: An Examination of All the Phenomena Connected with the Chemical and Molecular Changes Produced by the Influence of the Solar Rays; Embracing All the Known Photographic Processes and New Discoveries in the Art |date=1844 |publisher=Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans |location=London |pages=181–194 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GqoaAAAAYAAJ |access-date=5 August 2023 |chapter=The Influence of the Solar Rays upon Vital Organisation and upon Simple Inorganic Bodies}}{{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=Paul |title=Banvard's Folly |date=2002 |publisher=Picador |location=London |isbn=0330486896 |oclc=50495295 |ol=10492488M}}{{rp|214-215}} in his later years, Gen. Pleasonton came to a theory that the blue wavelengths from the sun are inherently unique and that the blue rays from the sun are especially influential in the growth of plant and animal life. He also postulated that blue light was especially significant in the health of humans and helped eradicate disease. This theory is pseudoscientific and was never adopted by mainstream scientists, even in his time, but it is often credited as being the birth of modern chromotherapy. Chromotherapy, also called color therapy, is an alternative medicine therapy method which states that certain colors can influence the health of a person.

His basis for his theory was that plants flourished in the spring time and not in the winter, when the sky was less blue. Between the years 1861 and 1876, he tested this theory by establishing greenhouses to grow grapes and ran experiments on plants and animals. His grape experiment consisted of growing grapes in a greenhouse-like building in which the panes of glass alternated between colourless and blue. He claimed that this method greatly increased his production of grapes.

In 1871 Pleasonton published his findings in a monograph entitled On the Influence of the Blue Color of the Sky in developing Animal and Vegetable Life. After continuing his experiments and expanding his theories, in 1876 he published his main work, the book The Influence of the Blue Ray of the Sunlight and of the Blue Color of the Sky: In developing animal and vegetable life; in arresting disease, and in restoring health in acute and chronic disorders to human and domestic animals.

Pleasonton's theory led to what was called the "Blue-glass Craze", whereby people began growing crops under blue light.{{cite web |last1=Edwards |first1=Phil |title=Blue glass: the 19th-century miracle cure that split the country |url=https://www.vox.com/2015/5/14/8602411/blue-glass-debate |website=Vox |date=14 May 2015 |publisher=Vox Media |access-date=21 July 2023}} Soon, blue panes of glass were being sold as a way to increase crop production.{{cite encyclopedia |year=1919 |title=Phototherapy |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia Americana |publisher=Encyclopedia Americana Corporation |place=Chicago |url=https://archive.org/stream/encyclopediaame35unkngoog#page/n35/mode/1up |volume=22 |pages=18–20}}

After Pleasonton's findings, scientist Dr. S. Pancoast studied the blue-light phenomenon and described his findings in his book Blue and Red Light; or, Light and Its Rays as Medicine which was published in 1877. Edwin Dwight Babbitt was also influenced by this concept and published a book about chromotherapy in 1878, entitled The Principles of Light and Color.

Alternative-rock band OK Go's concept album, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, is influenced by Pleasonton's book.

{{Reflist}}

• {{OL book|id=23401188M|cname=The Influence of the Blue Ray of the Sunlight and of the Blue Color of the Sky (1876) by A. J. Pleasonton}}
• {{LCCN|96230159|On the Influence of the Blue Color of the Sky (1871) by A. J. Pleasonton|long=yes}}
• {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326225949/http://www.congressionalcemetery.org/PDF/Obits/P/Obits_Pleasonton.pdf |date=26 March 2009 |title=A. J. Pleasonton Obituary}}

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Category:1808 births

Category:1894 deaths

Category:American militia generals