I know this is a simple question and the answer will probably be a long one, but exactly what happens when you flush the toilet and how does it happen? Does it use any electricity?
You standard toilet uses no electricity.
The way it works is water level, and gravity with an assist from a siphon.
Assuming you have a standard toilet, if you get down on your hands and knees and look at the side of the bowl (the part that bolts to the floor) you will be able to see a passage that goes up and back, and then turns and heads down toward the floor. This is called the trap. The water in the bowl forms a seal so no gases from the sewer can come into the house.
On the back of the toilet is a tank of water.
When you flush the toilet a valve in the bottom of the tank opens and dumps between about 1.5 and 7 gallons of water into the bowl. This causes the water level in the bowl to rise. When the water level get high enough, the water spills over the trap and into the drain. As the water falls into the drain a siphon action is created which pulls more water past the trap and into the drain. Waste is also drawn over and into the drain. This siphon continues until the water in the bowl is so low air is drawn in and the siphon is broken.
meanwhile back in the tank, the flush valve (the one in the bottom of the tank) stays open until the water level drops to near the bottom of the tank, and then it closes via gravity.
When the water level in the tank drops, the fill valve opens and water starts to re-fill the tank. This filling continues until the tank is full, and a float (usually) rises and turns off the fill valve.
The unit is now ready for it’s next customer.
What was the logic behind older model toilets where the tank is up high, above the head of the customer? Obviously, it’s to utilize more gravity. Is the trade off an ability to use less water to achieve flush? Why has this style been dropped?
To help give the siphon action a boost, the water enters the bowl through a hole in the bottom, lined up with the drain. Placing the tank higher means that the water will move through the drain faster and entrain waste more effectively.
I’m guessing that advances in bowl design made the extra height unnecessary.
Ding! winner.
My low flow (1.6 gallon) toilet does a better job of clearing the bowl than my old (19556) 7 gallon toilet did.
I’m wondering if computer modeling was used. After all the reason US subs were quieter than other models was computer modeling of the screws, software that was protected more than the hardware that it ran on.
The high-level cisterns, at least over here, also used a siphon action to get the water out of the cistern (so it would drop quickly). They did this by dropping a bell into the water over the end of the downpipe so that water sloshed up inside the bell and over the edge of the downpipe, creating the siphon. But you needed a drop of several feet to make this happen. Later models used a hinged piston to give the water its initial push, and this was better at starting the siphon and allowed lower-level cisterns.
You could tell a bell from a pump according to whether the flush started when you pulled the chain or let it go - in the latter case, it was a bell. They were obsolescent when I was a boy, but you still saw a few.
While I like howstuffworks, in this particular case I think more could be gleaned by simply removing the top of a toilet tank and taking a look inside.
Can somebody explain to me how a toilet in a basement works? I’ve been scratching my head over that one for years. I’ve never actually seen one, but I’ve been told they do exist.
As long as the sewer is lower than the basement and toilet, just as like your standard issue loo.
That was a good explanation. I don’t think I could do it without drawing a picture.
In a typical modern US home, the toilet itself works the same regardless of sewer drain elevation relative to the toilet.
If the waste needs to be elevated to the height of the sewer drain, it is typically first gravity-drained to a pit (around here called an ejector pit) which is similar to a sump pump. The ejector pit is sealed so that gases do not escape into the basement and it has a mechanism to chop and pump solids up to the level of the sewer drain.
My brother needs to know where to get the 7 gallon one. The modern low-flows, which are code in these parts, are insufficient for his production capacity.
He’s too cheap to buy the pressure-assisted ones such as Kohler markets: http://www.us.kohler.com/tech/products/why_flushsystems.jsp
As a totally unnecessary aside, on a trip to the Kohler plant in WI a few years ago to pick out my house fixtures, I suggested they rename this line of toilets The Crap-Shooter. However I see my fabulous marketing suggestion has still been met with deaf ears.
My low flows are Kohlers, @ 1.6 gallons per flush. I was very worried about how well they would work seeings how my 7 gallon models often took two and sometimes three flushes to get rid of everything.
They work GREAT!
Even as full of shit as I am they manage to get rid of everything with the first flush about 99% of the time.
If he still wants a water waster, drive to Canada, and smuggle it in.
If you want an authentic crapper you need buy British 
When my brother remodeled his last home in Michigan, the contractor took a trip north (Canada) to get a toilet. My brother warned visitors not to flush while sitting.
If you click on the next page from this link, you get a cool animation to supplement Rick’s masterful explanation.
They may have used computers to design the late 20th-century water-savers, but the decision to bring the tank down off the wall was made pre-computers. The fully modern “water waster” was in wide use during the 1920s–check out reprints of old house plan catalogs with their plumbing chapters (“you’ll also need this…”)
Since toilets run on gravity and physics, not on electricity, this is why you can still flush them when the power is out.
You can also flush them if for some reason the handle and/or tank mechanism isn’t working (or if your water is shut off due to plumbers working downstairs). Just dump in a couple gallons of water all at once (a 5 gallon pickle bucket works well for this).
Of course, this means you would have had to put by a bucket of water before the plumbers shut off the water, but no system is perfect. 
Heh. They probably hear that kind of joke a lot, which would explain the bored looks your suggestion received.