[en] The main vehicle for bringing the pion to bear on a vast array of problems, has been the meson factories. Today there exist such facilities in Switzerland (SIN), in Canada (TRIUMF), and in the USA (LAMPF). A fourth is just now being completed in the Soviet Union. They are enormous enterprises - the current replacement value of LMPF is $350 million, not including the part devoted to national security problems. But they accommodate hundreds of scientists from around the world and by so doing generate political as well as intellectual and economic capital. Proton facilities, together with heavy-ion accelerators and electron facilities, form a triad on which stands the present edifice of experimental nuclear science. Each leg of this triad is dependent, to a greater or lesser extent, on the other two. However, in terms of versatility, the size of the community it serves, and the relatively short-term application of the knowledge base and people base for which nuclear science is responsible, the meson factory part of the above triad is by no means the least important component. I discuss this component from the standpoint of the facility I know best, namely LAMPF. 33 refs., 36 figs