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 accomplished this by starting a business that became UpRight. Mr. Wally Johnson was a very gifted mechanical engineer who lived in Berkeley, California. He stumbled upon access equipment when he began searching for a solution to painting his home.
While Mr. Johnson was embarking on his home painting project, he had a fruitless search for scaffolding that can handle the uneven terrain which surrounded his home. After being very unsatisfied with his choices, he decided to design his very own aluminum scaffold tower along with adjustable legs.
The Snorkel Company was also founded the very same year within St. Joseph, Missouri. This small business helped to revolutionize the new elevating boom lift. The machine was made for firefighting and rescue work. In less than 2 decades, the technology had developed into self-propelled boom lifts.
During the year 1977, Snorkel sold its very first self-propelled lift. This specialized product line did not take long to become the main business for the company.
It did not take long for Wallace Johnson to catapult to the top of the business and achieve worldwide domination with his scaffold. After he had accomplished this field, he decided to start all over and invent the first self-propelled aerial lift in the globe.
Mr. Johnson in the year 1972, opened a factory within Selma, where he manufactured 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 company`s main source of income.
In 1980, Wallace Johnson passed away, while the company, UpRight Inc. was sold at that time too. Mr Johnson's inventive and pioneering spirit did continue to live on. During the year 1994, UpRight launched the world's first micro-scissors. They went on to pioneer the TM12, which is the self-propelled mast lift.