Wally Johnson, back during the year 1946, created the markets for both aerial work platforms and scaffold towers all by himself. He did this by starting a business that was known as UpRight. Mr. Wally Johnson was an extremely gifted mechanical engineer who resided in Berkeley, CA. He stumbled upon access machinery when he began looking for a solution to painting his home.
When Mr. Johnson was embarking on his house painting project, he had a futile search for scaffolding which could deal with the uneven terrain which surrounded his house. After being really unsatisfied with his choices, he decided to design his own aluminum scaffold tower along with adjustable legs.
The Snorkel Company was also established the same year within St. Joseph, Missouri. This small company helped to transform the new elevating boom lift. The equipment was produced for firefighting and rescue work. In less than 20 years, the technology had developed into self-propelled boom lifts.
The first self-propelled lift was sold by Snorkel in the year 1977. This particular 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 attain global dominance with his scaffold. After he had attained this field, he decided to start all over and create the first self-propelled aerial lift in the world.
Mr. Johnson during the year 1972, opened a factory in Selma, where he made the "Flying Carpet" scissor lift. After this new and exciting machine exploded onto the marketplace, the ground-breaking product soon out-ranked the scaffolding component as the company`s main source of income.
Wallace Johnson passed away during the year 1980. At that time, the company UpRight Inc. was sold but his inventive and pioneering spirit lived on. In 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.