Industrial Equipment

Morehouse Industries Inc. reported second-quarter profits of $10,600 for the period ended Feb. 28, as compared to a $62,000 loss in the year-ago quarter. The Fullerton-based manufacturer of industrial equipment for the chemical process industries credited a resurgence of overseas sales combined with new product introductions for the turnaround. For the quarter, the company said its sales increased 63%, to $1.2 million, from revenues of $746,000 during the comparable 1984 period.

A construction crane snapped in two and tumbled 19 stories Tuesday, sweeping three workers to their deaths and crushing two passers-by under a rain of debris during the morning rush hour in downtown San Francisco. At least 21 people were injured, four seriously, including one 12-year-old boy hit in the head while waiting for a bus. Rescuers combed the debris for five construction workers believed missing, but they were later located unharmed.

The economy is beginning to show some early signs of recovery, but the bounceback is likely to be slow and unevenly spread among key industries, economists and business analysts say. So far, the evidence has been limited to a smattering of economic indicators: There's been a modest upturn in the housing market. New claims for unemployment benefits have declined for two weeks in a row. Semiconductor sales have jumped. And consumer confidence is on the rise.

The new machine at American Honda Motor's plant in Marysville, Ohio, is a monster and a marvel: It towers four stories above the ground and reaches three more stories below. Almost around the clock it roars, molding hunks of steel into car doors, side panels and hoods.

In an economy where recession supposedly still is a 50-50 possibility this year, industrial stocks are the last issues you'd expect to see rallying. Yet they have been some of the hottest stocks of late, in an otherwise struggling market. The short explanation for strength in such stocks as heavy equipment makers Deere, Ingersoll-Rand, Tenneco and others is that there is no recession on the horizon for their products, regardless of what's going on in the economy.

A federal grand jury is investigating whether McDonnell Douglas violated U.S. laws in exporting industrial equipment to China under an agreement it signed in February 1994. The agreement involved the sale of McDonnell Douglas equipment from its Columbus, Ohio, manufacturing plant to two companies that would then export it to Beijing, where it would make parts for the production of McDonnell Douglas aircraft to be assembled in Shanghai. At issue in the grand jury probe is whether any of the $5.

That sound you hear is the hum of factory machinery, the rattle of auto assembly lines, the whine of the drilling rig. It's the sound of American manufacturing slowly coming back to life as the economic recovery huffs and puffs along. While the revival may be neither universal nor readily apparent in depressed Southern California, critical sectors of American industry are seeing increasing demand for their products and services. On the Gulf of Mexico, a flotilla of U.S.

Like soldiers at attention, dozens of rocking chairs stand still and quiet in a dimly lit room at the tiny factory. Freshly covered with various shades of stain or white paint, they all await pickup by customers at The Rocker Shop. They are Brumby rockers, and they may be the last brigade of the famous chairs. The large, comfortable rockers were first made here around 1875, and they have rocked countless babies, mothers and fathers on front porches and in parlors.

The failure of a subcontractor to properly train and supervise its employees led to the collapse of a 16-story construction crane that killed five people in San Francisco in November, state regulators said Wednesday. The Division of Occupational Safety and Health blamed the accident, which also injured22 people, on The Erection Co., which was operating the crane when it plunged about 200 feet onto a crowded downtown intersection during the morning rush hour.

Three-quarters of the huge tower cranes at work on dozens of construction projects in California in recent months were in violation of state industrial safety laws, according to results of a Cal/OSHA inspection released Tuesday. Even though Cal/OSHA officials and a variety of politicians had put contractors on notice by publicizing the inspection program, which began last December and ended in February, violations were found at 29 of the 38 projects throughout the state.