Abstract: The contact materials comprise silver with additions of mercury or mercury and tellurium and silver-cadmium oxide compositions with additions of mercury and tellurium. The methods of making the materials include the steps of adding a silver-mercury alloy to molten silver and to a molten silver-tellurium powder mixture. The materials including cadmium oxide are produced by heating a mixture of powders of silver, a cadmium-tellurium compound, cadmium oxide, and mercuric oxide powders in a reducing atmosphere and then reoxidizing.