Wally Johnson, back during 1946, created the markets for both aerial work platforms and scaffold towers all by himself. He did this by starting a company that was called UpRight. Mr. Wally Johnson was an extremely skilled mechanical engineer who resided in Berkeley, California. He stumbled upon access equipment when he started looking for a a way to paint his home.
Mr. Johnson found it hard to look for capable scaffolding when he started a home painting project. Existing scaffolding was not able to handle the uneven terrain on his property. After being very discontented with his choices, he decided to design his own aluminum scaffold tower along with adjustable legs.
In that very same year, the Snorkel Company was founded within St. Joseph, Missouri. The company was responsible for introducing an innovative new elevating boom lift to the market. The equipment was produced for firefighting and rescue work. In less than 2 decades, the technology had developed into self-propelled boom lifts.
The very first self-propelled lift was sold by Snorkel during the year 1977. This specialized product line did not take long to become the company's main business.
It did not take long for Wallace Johnson to catapult to the top of the business and attain global dominance with his scaffold. When he had attained this field, he decided to start all over and invent the world's first self-propelled aerial lift.
Mr. Johnson during 1972, opened a factory within Selma, where he produced 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 revenue of the company.
During the year 1980, Wallace Johnson passed away, while the company, UpRight Inc. was sold at that time as well. Mr Johnson's pioneering and inventive spirit did continue to live on. In the year 1994, UpRight launched the first micro-scissor within the world. They went on to pioneer the TM12, which is the self-propelled mast lift.