This is just like the Millikan Oil drop experiment. It was actually off, but anybody who did experiments that disagreed with Millikan's "adjusted" things a lit

This is just like the Millikan Oil drop experiment. It was actually off, but anybody who did experiments that disagreed with Millikan's "adjusted" things a little bit to match better. So, it took a while for the value of the charge of the electron to "settle" to where it belonged. Scientists are people--with all the same failings.