Wally Johnson, back in 1946, created the markets for both scaffold towers and aerial work platforms all by himself. He attained this by starting a business which was called UpRight. Mr. Wally Johnson was a really gifted mechanical engineer who hailed from Berkeley, CA. He stumbled upon access equipment when he started looking for a solution to painting his house.
While Mr. Johnson was embarking on his home painting project, he had a futile search for scaffolding that can handle the uneven terrain that surrounded his home. After being really discontented 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 founded in St. Joseph, Missouri. The company was responsible for introducing an innovative new elevating boom lift to the market. The machinery was produced for rescue and firefighting work. In less than 20 years, the technology had developed into self-propelled boom lifts.
During the year 1977, Snorkel sold its first self-propelled lift. This particular product line did not take long to become the company's main business.
Wallace Johnson quickly catapulted to the top of the industry with his new scaffold. After he had attained this field, he decided to start all over and invent the world's very first self-propelled aerial lift.
In the year 1972, Mr. Johnson opened a new factory within Selma. There he created the "Flying Carpet" scissor lift. After this exciting and new equipment exploded onto the marketplace, the ground-breaking product soon out-ranked the scaffolding component as the company`s main source of income.
In the year 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. In 1994, UpRight launched the world's very first micro-scissors. They went on to pioneer the TM12, that is the self-propelled mast lift.