Can You Use the Power Coming Through a Phone Jack?

If you keep a landline around, you know that you don't need to plug a standard, corded phone into an outlet because the phone jack gives up the few volts your phone needs to work, on the telephone company's dime...

But can you use the 40 to 70 Volts of power that comes through a telephone socket for anything else?

As it turns out... Yeah, you can—

Wired posted a write-up of a less-than-gorgeous pink plastic 8-led table lamp that juices up on nothing but jack (pictured on the left, available for purchase here for $4.69). The idea seems silly until you realize that the lamp will stay on even when electricity isn't flowing. Put that one in your emergency kit!

We also found a video that shows anyone with a little electrical know-how exactly how to wire up your own low-power tech to the phone socket. Check it out here.

(Image: Flickr user Jason Nicholls under license from Creative Commons.)