Protective Chicken Glasses

It's widely known amongst agrarian types that chickens are the bullies of the barnyard. I'm not well versed enough in chicken-aggression to tell you exactly how often they end up fighting, but given that watching them is a sport unto itself I'd say often enough.

Anyway, what the hell am I talking about. This guy patented some chicken goggles.

Be it known that I, Andrew Jackson, Jr., a citizen of the United States, residing at Munich, in the county of Jackson, State of Tennessee, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Eye-Protectors for Chickens
[...]
This invention relates to eye protectors, and more particularly to eye-protectors designed for fowls, so that they may be protected from other fowls that might attempt to peck them

Improvements? Does that mean there were previous designs for chicken goggles that were deemed unsatisfactory? Sheesh, people had nothing to do before the internet.