Back in 1946, Wally Johnson started to create the markets for the aerial work platforms and scaffold towers all by himself. He accomplished this by starting a business which was known as UpRight. Mr. Wally Johnson was a very gifted mechanical engineer who resided 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 home painting project, he had a fruitless search for scaffolding that could handle the uneven ground that surrounded his home. After being extremely unsatisfied with his choices, he decided to design his very own aluminum scaffold tower complete with adjustable legs.
In that same year, the Snorkel Company was founded in St. Joseph, Missouri. The company was responsible for introducing a revolutionary new elevating boom lift to the market. The machinery was produced for firefighting and rescue work. In less than 2 decades, the technology had developed into self-propelled boom lifts.
During 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 rapidly catapulted to the top of the business with his new scaffold. After he had attained this field, he decided to start all over and create the world's very first self-propelled aerial lift.
Mr. Johnson in the year 1972, opened a factory within Selma, where he made the "Flying Carpet" scissor lift. After this exciting and new machinery exploded onto the marketplace, the innovative 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 also. Mr Johnson's inventive and pioneering spirit did continue to live on. During the year 1994, UpRight launched the very first micro-scissor within the globe. They went on to pioneer the TM12, which is the self-propelled mast lift.