Engelbert Krauskopf

Engelbert Krauskopf (August 21, 1820 – July 11, 1881) was a German-American settler, gunsmith, and naturalist. Born in Bendorf, Germany, he emigrated to the United States in 1846, and became a settler of Fredericksburg, Texas. He was trained as a cabinetmaker and gunsmith, and during the American Civil War once made a gun barrel especially for Robert E. Lee.^[1] He was also an inventor: when ammunition became scarce during the Civil War he and silversmith Adolph Lungkwitz developed a process for the manufacture of gun-caps.^[1] In 1872, he patented an improvement to a throttle valve stand with John M. Compant,^[2] and one of his last inventions was a microscope in the form of a magic lantern.^[3][4] An amateur botanist, he described the species Hesperaloe engelmannii (commonly known as Engelmann's red yucca).^[1][5] The standard author abbreviation Krauskopf is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.^[6]