Brian Reay wrote:
"sm_jamieson" wrote in message
oups.com...
After recent trip to US/canada, I have observed that most toilets are
flushed by a type of syphon (or possibly active vaccuum judging by the
force of the suction) which completely empties the toilet bowl before
refilling it. There is a small hole pointing toward the back of the
outlet that refills the bowl. This is nothing like our washdown pans,
or even our vacuum assisted types, where the cistern water causes
partial vaccum in the outlet to assist emptying.
Anyone know more about these US toilets, design and evolution etc.
Of course the bowl syphon is not to be confused with the cistern syphon
(which seems to be dissappearing anyway).
I've also read the archived posts on toilet cubicles with gaps round
the doors, yet highly private urinals with flush, strange I agree.

How odd, I've also just returned from a US trip and was pondering the exact
some thing while I was there.

Funilly enough, me too. In fact, I was so intruiged that I partially
dismantled the cistern in my hotel bedroom to try to work it out.
Unfortunately I didn't go prepared with any tools so I didn't get far
(probably a good job really) Inside the cistern there was soem sort of
pressure vessel though. The cistern appeared to push a very high
powered jet of water from the front of the bowl to the rear, pushing
the contents of the bowl out through a very small hole. It certainly
used very little water and seemed very effective. I wouldn't have one
in my house though for the simple reason that they are *very* noisy.
(Especially at 3am)

Jon.