or equal to about 1 micrometer the following examples serve to further illustrate the present invention and set forth the preferred embodiments for the practice thereof as such however they are not to be considered as limitations upon the overall scope hereof the following example describes the preparation of a silver cadmium oxide compact sintered under conventional sintering techniques three 3 grams of a well blended mixture containing 85 silver particles and 15 cadmium oxide particles is pressed using a pressure of 560 kg cm 2 to obtain a compact 0 2 cm in thickness and having approximately 50 porosity with particle sizes on the order of one micrometer the resultant compact is heated to 890 u00b0 c at about 28 u00b0 c min and held at this temperature for 60 minutes the resultant contact exhibited about 21 shrinkage about 9 40 g cm 3 density and 46 knoop scale with 50 g load hardness the resultant contact also exhibited approximately 4 3 u00d7 10 10 cadmium oxide particles of less than one micrometer size and approximately 1 3 u00d7 10 10 cadmium oxide particles of equal to or greater than one micrometer size contained in one cm 3 volume of the contact three 3 grams of a mixture containing 85 silver particles and 15 cadmium oxide particles is pressed using a pressure of 560 kg cm.