Comment by golddust-gecko

I feel like this part is either a mistake, or a whole story in itself:

> This premise was based on the results of a 1940 study by Ichiro Tani, a Japanese scientist who demonstrated the relationship between surface roughness (an indicator of the state of the machined surface) and turbulent transition, arguing that surface roughness, which was unavoidable with the manufacturing technology of the time, prevented laminar flow from being realized.

> However, in 1989 Tani reinterpreted the experimental data on rough-surfaced pipes obtained by fluid engineer Johann Nikulase in the 1930s, suggesting that “roughness may not necessarily only promote turbulent transition and increase fluid resistance.”

So if true, this means that Tani was working on the same problem for 49 years.

Evidently [he died in 1990](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q24868684), so it's at least possible.