Why won't the easy serve coffee pot work?

Question

I work at an athletic club and am the only one here in the mornings. This morning is the first that we are serving complimentary coffee to the members... there were directions left for me that worked well as far as grinding the coffee, brewing, etc. Now, however, I have three Air pot things (that's what they're called i guess...but basically they are big cylindrical coffee servers/thermoses with a pump down thing on top) and I can push down on the little lever over and over and over and it sounds like something might come out soon but it never does...AH... Is there something simple I'm not doing?

Answer 1

Is it one like this, the Aeropress coffee maker?

http://www.singleservecoffee.com/archive...

That page has step by step instructions for using the pot.  I've never used one, but the instructions look quite detailed.