Wally Johnson, back in 1946, created the markets for both scaffold towers and aerial work platforms all by himself. He did this by establishing a business which became UpRight. Mr. Wally Johnson was an extremely gifted mechanical engineer who resided in Berkeley, California. He stumbled upon access machines when he began searching for a solution to painting his house.
While Mr. Johnson was embarking on his house painting project, he had a fruitless search for scaffolding that could deal with the uneven ground which surrounded his house. After being extremely unsatisfied with his choices, he decided to design his own aluminum scaffold tower together with adjustable legs.
The Snorkel Company was also founded the same year in St. Joseph, Missouri. This small company helped to transform the new elevating boom lift. The equipment was made for rescue and firefighting 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 in the year 1977. This specialized product line did not take long to become the main business for the company.
It did not take long for Wallace Johnson to catapult to the top of the business and achieve global dominance with his scaffold. When he had accomplished this field, he decided to start all over and create the first self-propelled aerial lift in the globe.
Mr. Johnson in 1972, opened a factory in Selma, where he created the "Flying Carpet" scissor lift. After this exciting and new machinery exploded onto the marketplace, the ground-breaking product soon out-ranked the scaffolding component as the main source of revenue of the company.
Wallace Johnson passed away in the year 1980. At that time, the company UpRight Inc. was sold but his pioneering and inventive spirit lived on. During the year 1994, UpRight launched the world's first micro-scissors. They went on to pioneer the TM12, which is the self-propelled mast lift.