Vulcazine is a refined form of petroleum used to power locomobiles and other machines. After the discovery of petroleum deposits in western Pennsylvania by Benjamin Stilton in 1855, North American engineer Edgar Van Dant analyzed the chemical components of petroleum and developed refining techniques to produce a great variety of useful fuels and materials. Vulcazine was used in small engines and in the first airmobiles developed by Thomas Edison at the turn of the twentieth century, but the original locomobiles in the C.N.A. used steam engines.
The Jefferson Motors company in Mexico was the first to market locomobiles using vulcazine, with an innovative engine designed by William James that repeatedly ignited small amounts of the fuel inside chambers to drive a piston. This technology quickly became dominant in Mexico, and by 1929 the majority of C.N.A. locomobiles also used vulcazine. The leading vendor of the fuel in the CNA was North American Fuel, an affiliate of Owen Galloway's North American Motors, that maintained a network of dispensaries across the nation and scoured the world for petroleum deposits. An improved vulcanize engine developed by N.A.M. was a key factor in its capture of the North American locomobile market.