The logo in the form of a silhouette of a bitten apple is known to anyone who deals with digital technology, at least as a user. This is the logo of the Apple company founded by Steve Jobs.
The apple is a symbol that evokes many different associations. Eve's apple is a symbol of the human fall, William Tell's apple is a symbol of the heroic struggle for the freedom of his people, the “apple of discord” from ancient Greek mythology is the reason for the beginning of the Trojan War … but hardly one of these apples was involved in the appearance of the famous logo.
Perhaps the origin of the logo is connected with one of the legendary apples, which the Russian poet V. Bryusov attributed to the “three symbols of earthly rebellion”. Along with the apple of Eve and the apple of Wilhelm Tell, the poet ranked I. Newton's apple as such.
Apple I. Newton
One can argue how true is the legend of the apple that fell on the head of the great English physicist and pushed him to the discovery of the law of universal gravitation. One way or another, the idea of "I. Newton's apple" has established itself as a generalized image of intuitive insight leading to an epoch-making scientific discovery.
Such an image could not fail to attract people claiming an equally epoch-making breakthrough in technology. This is exactly what the founders of Apple Corporation - Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne - thought. True, R. Wayne soon became disillusioned with Apple and left the corporation, but it was he who had the happy idea - to use the image of I. Newton sitting under an apple tree as the company's logo.
Such a logo was both beautiful and meaningful, but too complicated for both reproduction and perception. It even had a negative impact on sales. Therefore, it was decided to make the logo simpler, because one apple is enough to associate with the legend of the great physics.
Bitten apple
The association with the legend about "I. Newton's apple" explains the presence of the apple on the logo, but does not explain who bit it. There is a version that Steve Jobs himself did it. The founder of the company allegedly took a bite of an apple, thinking about a new logo, and decided: if he doesn't think of anything by the evening, let the bitten apple be the logo. However, this version is from the realm of legends.
The most convincing explanation seems to be the connection between the logo and the tragic fate of the mathematician A. Turing, the creator of one of the first computers. This man was convicted for his homosexual inclinations, deprived of the right to conduct scientific research and sentenced to compulsory treatment. The verdict was a heavy blow for the scientist. A year later, A. Turing took his own life by poisoning with cyanide. The poison was enclosed in an apple, which the unfortunate man could not even finish eating.
This version is also supported by the fact that originally the apple on the logo had a rainbow color, because the rainbow flag is a symbol of adherents of same-sex sexual relations.
