Wally Johnson, back in the year 1946, created the markets for both aerial work platforms and scaffold towers all by himself. He attained this by starting a company that was referred to as UpRight. Mr. Wally Johnson was a very skilled mechanical engineer who hailed from Berkeley, California. He stumbled upon access machines when he started looking for a a way to paint his home.
Mr. Johnson found it hard to search for capable scaffolding when he began a house painting project. Current scaffolding could not handle the uneven terrain on his land. After being really discontented with his options, he decided to design his very own aluminum scaffold tower along with adjustable legs.
In that same year, the Snorkel Company was established in St. Joseph, Missouri. The company was responsible for introducing an innovative new elevating boom lift to the market. The machine was produced for firefighting and rescue work. In less than twenty years, 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.
It did not take long for Wallace Johnson to catapult to the top of the industry and attain global domination with his scaffold. After he had accomplished this field, he decided to start all over and make the very first self-propelled aerial lift in the world.
Mr. Johnson in the year 1972, opened a factory within Selma, where he produced 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 main source of income of the company.
In the year 1980, Wallace Johnson passed away, while the company, UpRight Inc. was sold at that time also. Mr Johnson's inventive and pioneering spirit did continue to live on. In 1994, UpRight launched the world's first micro-scissors. They went on to pioneer the self-propelled mast lift, the TM12.