Glasses Lenses are more than just a piece of glass or plastic that protects your eye - corrective lenses are actually specially designed to help treat and to fix such eyesight conditions as astigmatism or myopia, along with other vision problems. And as such, there are many people - no doubt millions worldwide that depend on certain types of prescription eyeglasses to get through their daily activities. What many people don't realise, however, is the fact that there is actually quite a rich and involved history behind prescription eyewear, and believe it or not, this history is actually quite an interesting story. It is said that corrective glasses lenses were first used and developed in the 9th century by an Arab man named Abbas Ibn Firnas, though the form of magnification has been recorded even earlier than that. It wasn't until 1284 however, that the Italian inventor Salvino D'Armate would take the credit for producing the world's first pair of wearable seeing glasses lenses though!