Back during the year 1946, Wally Johnson began to create the markets for both the scaffold towers and aerial work platforms all by himself. He attained this by starting a company which became UpRight. Mr. Wally Johnson was an extremely gifted mechanical engineer who hailed from Berkeley, CA. He stumbled upon access machines when he began searching for a solution to painting his home.
When Mr. Johnson was embarking on his house painting project, he had a fruitless search for scaffolding which could deal with the uneven terrain which surrounded his home. After being very unsatisfied with his options, he decided to design his own aluminum scaffold tower along with adjustable legs.
The Snorkel Company was also established the same year in St. Joseph, Missouri. This small company helped to revolutionize the new elevating boom lift. The equipment was produced for firefighting and rescue work. In less than 2 decades, the technology had developed into self-propelled boom lifts.
The 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.
Wallace Johnson quickly catapulted to the top of the business with his new scaffold. Once he had accomplished this field, he decided to start all over and invent the world's first self-propelled aerial lift.
Mr. Johnson during the year 1972, opened a factory within Selma, where he made the "Flying Carpet" scissor lift. After this new and exciting machine exploded onto the marketplace, the innovative product soon out-ranked the scaffolding component as the main source of income of the company.
Wallace Johnson passed away during the year 1980. At that time, the company UpRight Inc. was sold but his inventive and pioneering spirit lived on. In 1994, UpRight launched the world's very first micro-scissors. They went on to pioneer the self-propelled mast lift, the TM12.