A Sacramental Wafer Holder.
Year: 1899

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A Sacramental Wafer Holder.
I, ALEXANDER JOHNSON LEE, of Saint Augustine's Clergy House, Settle Street,
Commercial Road, London, E., Clerk in Holy Orders, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particu-
larly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
The primary object of my invention is to provide for sacramental purposes a
wafer holder whereby when the probable number of communicants at any
particular celebration is known, the celebrant or other responsible minister will
be at once enabled to select for use from amongst the total number of wafers
provided, the exact number required, without the necessity of counting these
individually; the ultimate object of my invention being to minimize the risk
of irreverence arising from confusion and error in counting, and from breakage
or want of cleanliness due to the handling of a large number of wafers.
Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming part of this
specification wherein Figure 1 is a perspective view of the device of my invention,
wafers being shewn in position in certain of the compartments by dotted lines.
Figure 2 is a transverse section and Figure 3 a longitudinal section of the device.
The wafer holder of my invention consists of a light horizontal grille a placed
within a shallow box 6, the upper surface of the grille (which is preferably flush
with the upper edge of the sides of the box) standing at a distance above the
bottom 6 of the box about equal to the semi-diameter of a wafer. The grille a
is a frame (preferably of metal such as silver) having rows of oblong rectangular
apertures each of a length somewhat exceeding the diameter of a wafer and of
a breadth sufficient to admit (say) ten wafers z on edge side by side. The width
of the bars d which separate laterally adjacent apertures c of the grille is such
that the clear space left above the grille between laterally adjacent sets of wafers,
is sufficient to admit the points of the fingers when inserting or removing the
wafers. The grille a and box 6 thus conjointly constitute a rack adapted to
contain rows of what may be termed rouleaux or sets of wafers each comprising
a definite and known number and each presented edgewise in such manner that any
one rouleau or set can be readily seized and removed from the rack, from amongst
the entire contents of which the required number of wafers can thus be selected
with facility and without the necessity of handling and counting the wafers one
by one.
In order to meet the case of a number of wafers being required which is not
divisible by the number contained in each compartment of the rack, a portion
of the grille is left entirely open to form a well or tray e large enough to
contain a few loose wafers x¹ from amongst which the odd number required may
be readily made up. Thus, for example, if each compartment of the rack
contains ten wafers, and the number wanted he thirty-seven, three rouleaux would
be taken from the rack and seven loose wafers from the tray e to form that number.
In order to prevent the wafers which are loosely held by the rack, from slipping
laterally underneath the grille and thus becoming mixed together or broken,