Back during 1946, Wally Johnson began to create the markets for both the scaffold towers and aerial work platforms all by himself. He accomplished this by establishing a company which was called UpRight. Mr. Wally Johnson was an extremely gifted mechanical engineer who hailed from Berkeley, CA. He stumbled upon access machinery when he began searching for a a way to paint his house.
When Mr. Johnson was embarking on his house painting project, he had a futile search for scaffolding which can handle the uneven terrain that surrounded his house. After being very unsatisfied with his choices, he decided to design his very own aluminum scaffold tower along with adjustable legs.
During that same year, the Snorkel Company was established within St. Joseph, Missouri. The company was responsible for introducing a revolutionary new elevating boom lift to the market. The equipment was produced for rescue and firefighting 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 in the year 1977. This specialized product line did not take long to become the company's main business.
Wallace Johnson rapidly catapulted to the top of the industry with his new scaffold. When he had attained this field, he decided to start all over and invent the very first self-propelled aerial lift in the world.
Mr. Johnson during the year 1972, opened a factory in Selma, where he produced the "Flying Carpet" scissor lift. After this new and exciting machine exploded onto the marketplace, the innovative product soon out-ranked the scaffolding component as the company`s main source of revenue.
During 1980, Wallace Johnson passed away, while the company, UpRight Inc. was sold at that time as well. Mr Johnson's inventive and pioneering spirit did continue to live on. During the year 1994, UpRight launched the first micro-scissor in the world. They went on to pioneer the TM12, which is the self-propelled mast lift.