Back in 1946, Wally Johnson began to create the markets for the aerial work platforms and scaffold towers all by himself. He accomplished this by starting a business which was called UpRight. Mr. Wally Johnson was an extremely gifted mechanical engineer who hailed from Berkeley, CA. He stumbled upon access machinery when he began searching for a a way to paint his house.
Mr. Johnson found it hard to search for capable scaffolding when he started a house painting project. Current scaffolding could not deal with the uneven ground on his land. After being extremely 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 same year within St. Joseph, Missouri. This small company helped to transform the new elevating boom lift. The machine was produced for rescue and firefighting work. In less than twenty years, 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 quickly catapulted to the top of the business with his new scaffold. After he had attained this field, he decided to start all over and invent the first self-propelled aerial lift in the globe.
Mr. Johnson during the year 1972, opened a factory in Selma, where he manufactured 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 main source of revenue of the company.
Wallace Johnson passed away in the year 1980. At that time, the company UpRight Inc. was sold but his pioneering and inventive spirit lived on. During 1994, UpRight launched the first micro-scissor within the world. They went on to pioneer the self-propelled mast lift, the TM12.