High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Robert Bald FRSE (1776–1861) was a Scottish surveyor, civil and mining engineer, and antiquarian. He was born in Culross, Scotland, the son of Alexander Bald (1753–1823), a colliery agent of Alloa. Robert Bald was one of the earliest and most eminent mining engineers and land surveyors in Scotland, and by the late Nineteenth Century he was referred to as "the acknowledged father of mining engineering in Scotland". His brother was Alexander Bald, poet and friend of James Hogg.