Back in 1946, Wally Johnson started to create the markets for both the aerial work platforms and scaffold towers all by himself. He did this by starting a company that was known as UpRight. Mr. Wally Johnson was a very skilled mechanical engineer who lived in Berkeley, California. He stumbled upon access machinery when he started looking for a a way to paint his house.
Mr. Johnson found it hard to search for capable scaffolding when he began a house painting project. Current scaffolding could not handle the uneven terrain on his land. After being really unsatisfied with his choices, he decided to design his own aluminum scaffold tower complete with adjustable legs.
The Snorkel Company was also founded the very same year in St. Joseph, Missouri. This small business helped to transform the new elevating boom lift. The machinery was made for firefighting and rescue work. In less than 20 years, the technology had developed into self-propelled boom lifts.
In 1977, Snorkel sold its first self-propelled lift. This particular product line did not take long to become the main business for the company.
Wallace Johnson quickly catapulted to the top of the business with his new scaffold. After he had accomplished this field, he decided to start all over and invent the world's first self-propelled aerial lift.
In the year 1972, Mr. Johnson opened a new factory in Selma. There 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 main source of income of the company.
In 1980, Wallace Johnson passed away, while the company, UpRight Inc. was sold at that time also. Mr Johnson's inventive and pioneering spirit did continue to live on. During 1994, UpRight launched the first micro-scissor within the globe. They went on to pioneer the self-propelled mast lift, the TM12.