In article .com,
"sm_jamieson" writes:
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.

I think it's just a jet of high pressure water from the
front of the base acts like an old water vacuum pump to
suck the contents of the bowl into the u trap.

Here's a picture of one taken in Sun's Menlo Park office
by a former manager of mine...
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/syw...ys_are_naughty

These ones have no local cistern, but run from a high
pressure supply with a timed flush valve (on some, it's
electronic using an IR sensor).

I've also read the archived posts on toilet cubicles with gaps round
the doors, yet highly private urinals with flush, strange I agree.

The US ones I've used were all very non-private compared
with what you find in the UK, both pans and urinals.

--
Andrew Gabriel