I remember reading (can't find a reference now) that when Japanese engineers acquired their first western steamship and copied it, their first version included copies of seams from the repairs that had been made on the original's boiler.
IIRC the story was cast as a "look how methodical Japanese people are" kind of thing, but IMO it was totally logical to copy everything perfectly -- they didn't yet know all of the details of how it worked, so they didn't know what was relevant and what wasn't. Later versions, once they'd experimented a bit, could strip things down.
(If anyone does have a reference, or knows that the story is an urban legend, I'd love to know.)
IIRC the story was cast as a "look how methodical Japanese people are" kind of thing, but IMO it was totally logical to copy everything perfectly -- they didn't yet know all of the details of how it worked, so they didn't know what was relevant and what wasn't. Later versions, once they'd experimented a bit, could strip things down.
(If anyone does have a reference, or knows that the story is an urban legend, I'd love to know.)