Why Is the Apple Logo a Piece-Bitten Apple?

Why Is the Apple Logo a Piece-Bitten Apple? 

Few people really know why the most well-known Apple Computer Company has the logo with a piece-bitten apple. The number of people who understands the meaning of the logo is not much. It’s a heartbreaking story behind the one-of-a-kind logo that has moved millions of netizens once the plot has been posted on social media. 

The Apple logo originated during World War II. Some countries in the allies emitted a top-secret ULTRA code and spent a lot of time identifying the top-notch code of a German cypher machine. A young man at Cambridge University, Alan Mathison Turing, is considered the world’s first computer, deciphered the secret code that Germany was proud of being impenetrable. The German boasted of mastering the secret German submarine forces completely. With his talent in computing, Alan Turing contributed to the destruction of the German navy, the first German defeat, and part of the falling of the German Government. 

As a pioneering computer scientist, Turing worked as a mid-20th century British mathematician, logician, and cryptanalyst. During World War II, he worked at England’s Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park. Along with his team of scientists and linguists, he succeeded in cracking the “Enigma code” the Nazi command to conduct hidden communication operations. 

Thanks to Turing and his colleagues, the war was reduced by at least two years, leading to roughly 17 million lives being saved. UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill singled out him as a hero whose contribution is part to the Germans’ defeat.     

After World War II, Turing returned to the university to keep on his normal life, a secret gay life. Homosexuality was seen as a then felony in the UK. In 1954, he was caught in the scene, having sex with a 19-year-old man, Post. The then British government gave him two choices: either going to jail or undergoing estrogen injections in the lab. At that time, estrogen injections were considered a kind of “chemical castration” to eliminate sex drive.

On June 8, 1954, Turing was 42 years old, a peak period of creativeness. One morning, a housekeeper came into his bedroom and found the desk lamp was still on and an apple with a half bite on a nightstand. Everything seemed to be normal, but his forever sleeping in a bed.  

After an autopsy, the toxicity of cyanide was found in his body at an excessive level. The rumour about the death was that he made suicide because he couldn’t stand the suffering, pain and humiliation of being alone in the laboratory. He came to death by injecting poison into the apple and took a bite. The pain lasted a few minutes only and he passed away. 

At his funeral attended four people only; his mother was one of these four people. How sadly the life of a genius came to an end! He passed away around 4 years later, and the UK Government abolished the law condemning homosexuality. 

Turing deserves a reputation in history. It’s not only a contribution to deciphering Ultra code, but also a contribution to computer technology as he was a pioneer in an era of IT. 20 years later, as a fan of Turing, Steve Jobs named his company Apple with a half-bite image as the logo.  

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