Back in the year 1946, Wally Johnson started to create the markets for both the scaffold towers and aerial work platforms all by himself. He did this by establishing a company which was referred to as UpRight. Mr. Wally Johnson was a very gifted mechanical engineer who hailed from Berkeley, California. He stumbled upon access equipment when he started looking for a a way to paint his home.
Mr. Johnson found it hard to look for capable scaffolding when he started a home painting project. Existing scaffolding could not deal with the uneven ground on his land. After being extremely unsatisfied with his choices, he decided to design his own aluminum scaffold tower together with adjustable legs.
In that very same year, the Snorkel Company was established in St. Joseph, Missouri. The company was responsible for introducing an innovative new elevating boom lift to the market. The machine was made for firefighting and rescue work. In less than twenty years, the technology had developed into self-propelled boom lifts.
The very first self-propelled lift was sold by Snorkel during the year 1977. This particular product line did not take long to become the main business for the company.
Wallace Johnson rapidly catapulted to the top of the industry with his new scaffold. After he had accomplished this field, he decided to start all over and create the world's first self-propelled aerial lift.
Mr. Johnson in the year 1972, opened a factory in Selma, where he produced the "Flying Carpet" scissor lift. After this new and exciting machinery exploded onto the marketplace, the innovative product soon out-ranked the scaffolding component as the main source of revenue of the company.
Wallace Johnson passed away during 1980. At that time, the company UpRight Inc. was sold but his inventive and pioneering spirit lived on. In the year 1994, UpRight introduced the very first micro-scissor within the world. They went on to pioneer the self-propelled mast lift, the TM12.