Wally Johnson, back during the year 1946, created the markets for both aerial work platforms and scaffold towers all by himself. He attained this by establishing a business which was called UpRight. Mr. Wally Johnson was a really gifted mechanical engineer who lived in Berkeley, California. He stumbled upon access equipment when he started looking for a a way to paint his home.
When Mr. Johnson was embarking on his house painting project, he had a fruitless search for scaffolding that can deal with the uneven ground that surrounded his house. After being extremely unsatisfied with his choices, he decided to design his very own aluminum scaffold tower complete with adjustable legs.
The Snorkel Company was also established the very same year within St. Joseph, Missouri. This small company helped to revolutionize the new elevating boom lift. The machine was produced for firefighting and rescue work. In less than 2 decades, the technology had developed into self-propelled boom lifts.
The first self-propelled lift was sold by Snorkel in the year 1977. This specialized product line did not take long to become the main business for the company.
Wallace Johnson quickly catapulted to the top of the industry with his new scaffold. After he had accomplished this field, he decided to start all over and make the first self-propelled aerial lift in the world.
Mr. Johnson during 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 ground-breaking 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 too. Mr Johnson's pioneering and inventive spirit did continue to live on. During the year 1994, UpRight launched the world's very first micro-scissors. They went on to pioneer the TM12, that is the self-propelled mast lift.