Back in 1946, Wally Johnson started to create the markets for the scaffold towers and aerial work platforms all by himself. He attained this by establishing a business that was referred to as UpRight. Mr. Wally Johnson was a very skilled mechanical engineer who lived in Berkeley, California. He stumbled upon access equipment when he began looking for a solution to painting his house.
When Mr. Johnson was embarking on his home painting project, he had a fruitless search for scaffolding that could deal with the uneven ground which surrounded his home. After being really unsatisfied with his choices, he decided to design his very own aluminum scaffold tower along with adjustable legs.
In that same year, the Snorkel Company was established within St. Joseph, Missouri. The company was responsible for introducing an innovative new elevating boom lift to the market. The machinery was made for firefighting and rescue 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 company's main business.
Wallace Johnson rapidly catapulted to the top of the industry with his new scaffold. When he had accomplished 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 manufactured the "Flying Carpet" scissor lift. After this exciting and new equipment exploded onto the marketplace, the innovative product soon out-ranked the scaffolding component as the main source of income of the company.
In the year 1980, Wallace Johnson passed away, while the company, UpRight Inc. was sold at that time too. Mr Johnson's inventive and pioneering spirit did continue to live on. During the year 1994, UpRight introduced the very first micro-scissor in the world. They went on to pioneer the TM12, that is the self-propelled mast lift.