Abstract: An apparatus for transferring a predetermined number of semiconductor wafers to a wafer boat charging/discharging unit or to one of an array of vertical type dispersing furnaces via the wafer boat charging/discharging unit. The apparatus is operated by actuating the wafer boat charging/discharging unit adapted to charge a wafer boat having a mass of semiconductor wafers carried thereon in a vertical state in a furnace tube of the dispersing furnace by using a vertically displaceable wafer boat stage on which the wafer boat is charged in a furnace tube in cooperation with a wafer boat handler. After completion of a dispersing operation, the wafer boat is lowered away from the furnace tube and then returned to a wafer boat transferring passage with the aid of the wafer boat handler.