Back during 1946, Wally Johnson began to create the markets for both the scaffold towers and aerial work platforms all by himself. He did this by starting a company which became UpRight. Mr. Wally Johnson was a very gifted mechanical engineer who lived in Berkeley, California. He stumbled upon access machines when he started looking for a a way to paint his house.
When Mr. Johnson was embarking on his house painting project, he had a fruitless search for scaffolding that could 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 complete with adjustable legs.
The Snorkel Company was also established the very same year in St. Joseph, Missouri. This small business helped to transform the new elevating boom lift. The equipment was produced for rescue and firefighting work. In less than 2 decades, the technology had developed into self-propelled boom lifts.
During the year 1977, Snorkel sold its first self-propelled lift. This specialized product line did not take long to become the main business for the company.
Wallace Johnson rapidly catapulted to the top of the industry with his new scaffold. When he had attained this field, he decided to start all over and create the world's very first self-propelled aerial lift.
Mr. Johnson during the year 1972, opened a factory within Selma, where he manufactured the "Flying Carpet" scissor lift. After this new and exciting machinery exploded onto the marketplace, the ground-breaking product soon out-ranked the scaffolding component as the company`s main source of revenue.
During 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 the year 1994, UpRight introduced the first micro-scissor within the world. They went on to pioneer the self-propelled mast lift, the TM12.