While all Cambridge peeled off clothing and waited for the promised thunder-showers yesterday evening, the U. S. Weather Bureau was forecasting for today the first break in the sweltering heat wave which has held the Boston area in its grip since Saturday.

The cool air expected to arrive sometime early this morning will keep the mercury down in the middle seventies for at least a couple of days, but government meteorologists refused to extend their predictions through the long Fourth of July weekend. Chances are, they said, that it will be hot, but not as hot as the past few days.

Coney-on-the-Charles

Although Stillman Infirmary has treated no cases of heat suffocation during the heat wave, activity around the Yard slowed practically to a walk yesterday afternoon when the full force of Old Sol hit residents. Observers in Widener Library and the Boylston Reading Room reported a distinct falling off of intellectual activity during the normally busy evening session.

On the other end of the scale, the grassy banks of the Charles River looked something like Coney Island during the mid-afternoon. Studying, in spite of omni-present books, seemed at a minimum.

Uniform of the Day

Facing the issue of the weather squarely, House dining halls promulgated a series of hot-weather fashion rules, varying slightly from House to House.

In Eliot diners were permitted to eat without coats, but were required to wear ties.

In Kirkland, House rules okayed shirt-sleeves on days "of unusual heat" and the absence of the tie at all times.

In the third House dining hall, Lowell conservatism made heat wave diners wear coats to meals, but not neckties. A House order, signed by House master Elliot Perkins '23, described coats as that "type of garment normally so defined in adult society."

From Seersucker to Books

Around the Square, some merchants liked the idea of a heat wave, some didn't. They were divided strictly along lines dictated by their business activities.

One haberdasher, after unloading record stocks of seersucker coats and bathing suits, said "get cooler nothing! I hope the temperature goes up to 600 degrees around here."

The year's first run on what the trade calls "hammock literature" was reported by one bookstore. Comes the hot weather, they said, and college students start to catch up on their light reading. Arnold Toynbee's "Study of History" was named as a definitely cold weather book, while the sweltering reader picks up P. G. Wodehouse, or Faith Baldwin.

Ice Sales Soar

Not sharing in the general optimism were the restaurants. An owner explained that when the weather takes a turn for the sultry, the amount of dinning hall checks falls off steadily. Beer consumption shoots up, but this is more than balanced by the lessened demand for hard liquor.

A package store described a hot-weather increase in ice sales, but stated that their beer and hard liquor sales had remained just about even.