 Bald was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1817 and started working in general practise as a mining engineer in Edinburgh around 1820 with John Geddes.Bald and John Buddle share the credit for being the first to direct attention to the dangerous, highly flammable nature of coal dust.Bald pointed out the danger of the ignition of coal dust in a paper in "Jameson's Journal", 1828.