from military uniform historian John Mollo's book Military Fashion (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1972), page 133: "...a great wave of romanticism engulfed the field of military costume [in Europe after 1830], taking several different directions at the same time. In the early 1840s there appeared the celebrated Pickelhaube, or spiked helmet. This helmet was almost certainly designed by Nicholas I of Russia, and the story goes that Frederick William IV saw a prototype lying on [Nicholas'] desk, copied the idea, and got it out faster than the procrastinating Russians. A romanticized version of an ancient Slav helmet was already appearing on coins and medals during the reign of Alexander I, but Nicholas was the first to have the brainwave of adapting existing Russian cuirassier helmets by simply removing the horsehair crest and replacing it with a grenade finial."