i visited the great factories at the bottom of the shafts that led to the base of the mountain , where , unattended by any mechanics , great turbines whirred and moaned , giant pistons plunged back and forth , and immense systems of chemical vats , piping and converters , automatically performed their functions with the assistance of no human hand , but under the minute television inspection of many perfumed dandies reclining at their ease before viewplates in their apartment offices in the city , that clung to the mountain peak far above .