Survivorship bias, or survival bias, is the logical error of     
  concentrating on the people or things that "survived" some   
  process and inadvertently overlooking those that did not
  because of their lack of visibility...A commonly held
  opinion in many populations is that machinery, equipment,
  and goods manufactured in previous generations often is
  better built and lasts longer than similar contemporary
  items...Again, because of the selective pressures of time
  and use, it is inevitable that only those items which were
  built to last will have survived into the present day.
  Therefore, most of the old machinery still seen functioning
  well in the present day must necessarily have been built to
  a standard of quality necessary to survive.