From an paragraph in Margaret Hofer's book "The games we played" "In Pillow Dex, a precursor of "Table Tennis" players volley a balloon over a net stretched across a parlor table. The idea being to keep the balloon from landing on your side of the table. If you can make it land on your opponents side 10 times you win the game. Pillow Dex was one of the most heavily advertised games of the period."