Back in the year 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 company which became UpRight. Mr. Wally Johnson was an extremely skilled mechanical engineer who lived in Berkeley, California. He stumbled upon access machinery when he began looking for a solution to painting his house.
When Mr. Johnson was embarking on his home painting project, he had a futile search for scaffolding which can handle the uneven ground which surrounded his home. After being extremely discontented with his options, he decided to design his very own aluminum scaffold tower along with adjustable legs.
The Snorkel Company was also established the same year within St. Joseph, Missouri. This small business helped to revolutionize the new elevating boom lift. The machinery was produced for rescue and firefighting 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.
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 invent the first self-propelled aerial lift in the globe.
In the year 1972, Mr. Johnson opened a new factory in Selma. There he created 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 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 self-propelled mast lift, the TM12.