A welcome mat from Lexington, Massachusetts. Lexington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States.

A mat is a generic term for a piece of fabric or flat material, generally placed on a floor or other flat surface, and serving a range of purposes including:

• providing a regular or flat surface, such as a mouse mat. A textile is a flexible material comprised of a network of natural or artificial Fibres often referred to as thread or Yarn. A floor is the walking surface of a room or vehicle Floors vary from simple dirt in a cave to many-layered surfaces using modern technology A mousepad (sometimes mouse pad, mousemat, or mouse mat) is a surface for enhancing the Usability of a Computer mouse.
• protecting that which is beneath the mat, such as a place mat or the matting used in archival framing and preservation of documents and paintings. In the picture framing industry a mat is a thin flat piece of Paper -based material included within a picture frame which serves as additional decoration and to
• protecting that which is above the mat, such as a wrestling or gymnastics mat, or an anti-vibration mat. Mats are used for safety in Gymnastics, and in training new skills
• changing the state of that which passes above it, such as a doormat attracting dirt from shoes.

In domestic settings:

• A doormat is a flat, usually rectangular object placed immediately outside or inside the entrance to a house or other building, to allow people to easily scrub or wipe the soles of their shoes before entering. In Architecture, Construction, Engineering and real estate development the word building may refer to one of the following Any man-made A shoe is an item of Footwear. Shoes may vary from a simple Flip-flop to a complex Boot. Doormats are usually made from tough, long-lasting material such as coir, palmyra (palm tree) fibres and stalks, nylon, rubber, cloth, or aluminium and other metals. Coir (from Malayalam kayar, cord is a coarse fibre extracted from the fibrous outer shell of a Coconut. Arecaceae or Palmae (also known by the name Palmaceae, which is taxonomically invalid or commonly palm tree) the palm family is a family of Flowering Doormats may also be known as welcome mats, as their location at an entrance constitutes a "welcome" to visitors, and may therefore also bear some word, message or sign of greeting. Greeting (also called accosting) is a way for human beings (as well as other members of the animal kingdom to intentionally communicate awareness of each other's This in turn has given rise to a subculture of cartoons featuring characters returning home to find (to the reader) a humorous message on the doormat. The lowly purpose for which doormats exist has also led to informal use of the term as a reference to people who behave timidly or passively when exploited by others (see also Caspar Milquetoast). Caspar Milquetoast was a Comic strip character created by Harold Webster in 1924 for his comic strip The Timid Soul, published in the

• A bath mat is a device used on the floor of a bathroom to provide a warm non-slip surface, and to absorb small amounts of water, much like a towel. A bathroom is a room that may have different functions depending on the cultural context Water is a common Chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of Life. A towel is a piece of absorbent fabric or Paper used for drying or wiping

• Place mats or serving mats are flat piece of fabric or other material used on a table at the points at which dishes and plates will be located during a meal. One common purpose of such mats is to provide a thermal and physical barrier between that which is placed on the table, and the table itself—for instance, to stop hot objects from marring the table's finish.

Other uses:

• a mouse mat is a small flat mat used to provide a flat surface on which a computer mouse can be operated. In Computing, a mouse (plural mice, mouse devices, or mouses) (A mouse employing a ball which is driven by friction and which drives a x and y movement sensors requires a regular flat surface with high enough friction to drive the ball. Older optical mice—typically those from Sun Microsystems—required a mouse mat with a differentially reflecting grid. Sun Microsystems Inc ( is a multinational vendor of Computers computer components Computer software, and Information technology services )

• an anti-vibration mat is a mat which performs the function of isolating vibration between that which is above the mat and that which is below. Such a mat might typically be used when mounting a heavy machine which vibrates, onto a concrete floor; in the absence of the anti-vibration mat, the machine tend to erode the floor through abrasion. Vibration refers to mechanical Oscillations about an equilibrium point. Contrawise, some machines, such as the lithography machines used in chip fabs, need to be isolated from vibrations in their locale, and so are mounted on anti-vibration mats. Lithography is a method for Printing using a plate or stone with a completely smooth surface Microchipsjpg|right|thumb|200px|Microchips ( EPROM memory with a transparent window showing the integrated circuit inside In the Microelectronics industry a semiconductor fabrication plant (commonly called a fab) is a factory where devices such as Integrated circuits are manufactured

• a slipmat is a circular piece of slippery cloth or synthetic material designed to allow disc jockeys to turn or stop vinyl records on record players, or to scratch. A slipmat is a circular piece of slippery cloth or synthetic materials used by Disk jockeys instead of the traditional rubber mat A disc jockey (also known as DJ or deejay) is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience A gramophone The phonograph, or gramophone, was the most common device for playing recorded Sound from the 1870s through the 1980s "Scratching" is also a Present participle of " Scratch " and may also refer to a form of street art Scratching

• Chat-Mat is a recordable talking doormat that speaks messages when stepped on. Chat-Mat was invented in 1995 by Ralph Baer, the inventor of the first commercial video game system. Ralph H Baer (born March 8, 1922) is a German -born American Inventor, noted for his many contributions to Games and the

History

As of 1911, matting is a general term embracing many coarse woven or plaited fibrous materials used for covering floors or furniture, for hanging as screens, for wrapping up heavy merchandise and for other miscellaneous purposes. Year 1911 ( MCMXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year A woven is a Cloth formed by Weaving. It only stretches in the bias directions (between the warp and Weft directions unless the In the United Kingdom, under the name of "coir" matting, a large amount of a coarse kind of carpet is made from coconut fibre; and the same material, as well as strips of cane, Manila hemp, various grasses and rushes, is largely employed in various forms for making doormats. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Coir (from Malayalam kayar, cord is a coarse fibre extracted from the fibrous outer shell of a Coconut. A carpet is any loom-woven felted textile or grass floor covering The Coconut Palm ( Cocos nucifera) is a member of the Family Arecaceae (palm family Manila hemp, also known as manilla, is a type of Fiber obtained from the leaves of the Abacá ( Musa textilis) a relative of the Banana A mat is a generic term for a piece of fabric or flat material generally placed on a Floor or other flat surface and serving a range of purposes including Large quantities of the coconut fibre are woven in heavy looms, then cut up into various sizes, and finally bound round the edges by a kind of rope made from the same material. The mats may be of one colour only, or they may be made of different colours and in different designs. Sometimes the names of institutions are introduced into the mats. Another type of mat is made exclusively from the above-mentioned rope by arranging alternate layers in sinuous and straight paths, and then stitching the parts together. It is also largely used for the outer covering of ships' fenders. Perforated and otherwise prepared rubber, as well as wire-woven material, are also largely utilized for door and floor mats. Perforation refers to the puncturing of a material with a harder (usually sharp object to create a hole or aperture Matting of various kinds is very extensively employed throughout India for floor coverings, the bottoms of bedsteads, fans and fly-flaps, etc. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country ; and a considerable export trade in such manufactures is carried on. The materials used are numerous; but the principal substances are straw, the bulrushes Typha elephantina and Typha angustifolia, leaves of the date palm (Phoenix sylvestris), of the dwarf palm (Chamaerops Ritchiana), of the Palmyra palm (Borassus flabelliformis), of the coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) and of the screw pine (Pandanus odoratissimus), the munja or munj grass (Saccharum Munja) and allied grasses, and the mat grasses Cyperus textilis and Cyperus Pangorei, from the last of which the well-known Palghat mats of the Madras Presidency are made. Straw is an agricultural By-product, the dry stalk of a Cereal plant after the Grain or Seed has been removed Typha is a Genus of about eleven Species of Monocotyledonous flowering plants in the Monogeneric family Typhaceae The Date Palm ( Phoenix dactylifera) is a palm in the genus Phoenix, extensively cultivated for its edible Fruit. Chamaerops is a genus of Flowering plants in the family Arecaceae (palm family comprising a single species Chamaerops humilis Borassus ( Palmyra Palm) is a genus of six species of fan palms, native to tropical regions of Africa, Asia and New The Coconut Palm ( Cocos nucifera) is a member of the Family Arecaceae (palm family Pandanus is a Genus of Monocots with about 600 known Species. Sugarcane ( Saccharum) is a genus of 6 to 37 species (depending on taxonomic interpretation of tall perennial grasses (family Poaceae tribe Andropogoneae Cyperus is a large Genus of about 600 Species of sedges distributed throughout all continents in both tropical and temperate regions For the district with the same name see Palakkad District. Palakkad, also known as Palghat (anglicized is a town and a Municipality Many of these Indian grass-mats are admirable examples of elegant design, and the colours in which they are woven are rich, harmonious and effective in the highest degree. Several useful household articles are made from the different kinds of grasses. The grasses are dyed in all shades and plaited to form attractive designs suitable for the purposes to which they are to be applied. This class of work obtains in India, Japan and other Eastern countries. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. Vast quantities of coarse matting used for packing furniture, heavy and coarse goods, flax and other plants, etc. Furniture is the Mass noun for the movable objects which may support the human body (seating furniture and beds, provide storage or hold objects on horizontal Flax (also known as common flax or linseed) (binomial name Linum usitatissimum) is a member of the genus Linum , are made in Russia from the bast or inner bark of the lime tree. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Bark, also known as periderm is the outermost layer of stems and Roots of Woody plants such as Trees It overlays the Wood and consists Tilia is a Genus of about 30 species of Trees native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere, in Asia (where the greatest This industry centres in the great forest governments of Viatka, Nizhniy-Novgorod, Kostroma, Kazan, Perm and Simbirsk. Vyatka may refer to Vyatka River, a river in Russia Vyatka, former name of the city of Kirov, Kirov Oblast Russia Nizhny Novgorod (Ни́жний Но́вгород Nižnij Novgorod) colloquially shortened as Nizhny, is the fourth largest city in Russia Kostroma (Кострома́ is an historic city in central Russia, the administrative centre of Kostroma Oblast. Kazan (Каза́нь Казан tt Qazan) is the capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, and one of Russia's largest cities Perm (Пермь pʲɛrmʲ is a city and administrative center of Perm Krai, Russia. Ulyanovsk (Улья́новск formerly Simbirsk (ru Симби́рск is a city on the Volga River in Russia, 893 km east from

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone

See also

• Coir: Mats made of coir fibre. Coir (from Malayalam kayar, cord is a coarse fibre extracted from the fibrous outer shell of a Coconut.
• Egbere: mat-carrying creature in Yoruba mythology. In the African Yoruba mythology, Egbere is a mat-carrying creature who is always in tears The Yoruba religion is the religious beliefs and practices of the Yoruba people both in Africa (chiefly in Nigeria and Benin Republic)
• Marsden Matting: metal mats extensively produced and used as temporary construction material during World War 2. Marsden Matting is standardized perforated steel Matting material originally developed by the United States at the Waterways Experiment Station shortly
• Mat (picture framing): the type of "mat" used in picture frames. In the picture framing industry a mat is a thin flat piece of Paper -based material included within a picture frame which serves as additional decoration and to A picture frame is a container added to a picture in order to enhance it make it easier to display or in some cases to protect it
• Tatami: Japanese thick woven straw mat. (originally meaning "folded and piled" Mats are a traditional type of Japanese flooring

External links

• The History of The Mat at Pecos Museum