Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1873 — Clearing-House Certificates. [ARTICLE]

Clearing-House Certificates.

The New York banks have adopted the plan ol" settling balances with clearing, liouse certificates instead of greenbacks during tlie preseiit flurry. To the general public it may be well to explain what this action signifies. In a time like tlie present, everything which tends to economize the use of currency is pro tanto a relief to the money market. New York being tlie monetary" centre of the country, tlie place where all other banks keep greater or less balances, she must respond with currency when the banks of other cities call, for tlieir funds. But for all her own purposes she may use anything which her own banks may agree to consider good. All tlie banks meet once each day at the Clearing-House to exchange checks. Tlie Psifk Bank, for instance, turns into the Clearing-House checks drawn On other banks for $500,000. The other banks perhaps turn in checks on tlie Park Bank for $550,000. The Park Bank, therefore, owes the Clearing-House $50,000. Usually this sum would be paid to the Clearing-House in greenbacks. In order, however, to economize the use of greenbacks, the Park Bank, its condition being shown to be perfectly solvent, passes in its own check for $50,000. Other banks against which there is a balance do the same. The Clearing-House then issues its certificates for an equal amount to the banks which have a balance coming tp them from the day’s clearings. The system is perfectly business-like and in accord with sound principles of finance, though it necessitates a frequent examination of the assets of tlie several debtor banks by the Clearing-House Committee —Chicago Tribune. **'■ ♦ , L „ . By the use of thin leaves of steel in the construction of artificial magnets, M. Jtunin has so increased the carrying power of these magnets as to construct one weighing about four and a half pounds, which could carry a weight of ninety-nine pounds. Tlie great advantage US be expected from this discovery is the (reduction in the weight of the magnetoelectric machines of all kinds, and especially of' those employed in the pro-' auction of light.