Now this is the article that sprang to life 19 years ago, (i cannot believe where the time has gone). I wrote to Derek Simmons to ask a few questions and one of them was, Where did super 8 optical prints actually come from, how did they originate,
Here, from an early FFTC magazine in 1998 is the answer, and it is a very good & interesting read.I have put it up here full size so click on the pages and you will be able to read them clearly.
The optical item starts on page 1, (obviously) Row 3.

Thanks for sharing! That was interesting reading!