Back in the year 1946, Wally Johnson began to create the markets for the scaffold towers and aerial work platforms all by himself. He attained this by starting a company that was called UpRight. Mr. Wally Johnson was a very skilled mechanical engineer who resided in Berkeley, CA. He stumbled upon access equipment when he started searching for a a way to paint his house.
Mr. Johnson found it hard to search for capable scaffolding when he started a house painting project. Existing scaffolding was not able to deal with the uneven ground on his land. After being really unsatisfied with his choices, he decided to design his own aluminum scaffold tower along with adjustable legs.
In that same year, the Snorkel Company was founded in St. Joseph, Missouri. The company was responsible for introducing a revolutionary new elevating boom lift to the market. The machinery was produced for firefighting and rescue work. In less than 2 decades, the technology had developed into self-propelled boom lifts.
In 1977, Snorkel sold its first self-propelled lift. 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. After he had attained this field, he decided to start all over and make the world's first self-propelled aerial lift.
During the year 1972, Mr. Johnson opened a new factory in Selma. There he produced the "Flying Carpet" scissor lift. After this new and exciting machine exploded onto the marketplace, the ground-breaking product soon out-ranked the scaffolding component as the main source of income of the company.
During 1980, Wallace Johnson passed away, while the company, UpRight Inc. was sold at that time as well. Mr Johnson's inventive and pioneering spirit did continue to live on. In 1994, UpRight introduced the world's first micro-scissors. They went on to pioneer the TM12, that is the self-propelled mast lift.