Overview

Construction of the Hopewell, Virginia, plant near City Point on Virginia’s James River began in 1912. Facilities for dynamite production were almost complete when war broke out in Europe, sparking a huge demand for powder and guncotton. In response, DuPont quickly converted the plant to guncotton production. Hopewell was completed in early 1915 and for a time was the largest such factory in the world, at its peak producing 1.5 million pounds of nitrocellulose per day which supplied DuPont’s Carney’s Point, Haskell and Parlin smokeless powder plants.

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